The Excellent Adventure of a Wolf, a Loony and a Very Bored Heroine
by DylantheRabbit
Summary: Socially awkward junior scientist and all around genius Shelley Potter is about to have her world turned upside down with the arrival of some big news on her eleventh birthday. New friends and new adventures await in a fascinating new world of magic and magical creatures. A world that one particular brand new witch is going to make her own. Despite what anybody else thinks.
1. Chapter 1

**This new story is being written from an idea submitted to me by one of my long time supporters Tenzo51 and as it was a particularly fantastic idea I was more than happy to get on board. I will also be using them as a kind of unofficial Beta and collaborator who deserves and will receive a credit in every chapter written.**

 **So we'll be slightly AU with this, it is a femHarry story after all, but using many of the canon components and events, just hopefully in a different and more fun way. As in Silent World and Season of the Witch, OCs and little used characters abound. Also we're setting this twenty years after the time-line in the books since we really want to use some cool tech stuff. If that's not your kind of thing then I advise you to stop now. Same goes for femslash.** _ **Lots**_ **of that here. Eventually anyway.**

 **I'm hoping for a chapter every two weeks, as I feel that this is achievable, but you all know how crap I can be when it comes to updating so don't hold your breath 'kay.**

 **Having said that, this writing thing is about fun so let's try to have as much of that as we can too.**

 **So let's get started then. Enjoy yourselves I know that I intend to.**  
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 **I'm not JKR and I don't make any money from this. Which is a bit of a shame.**

 **DtR xx.**

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 **The Excellent Adventure of a Wolf, a Loony and a Very Bored Heroine.**

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 **1\. Weird Science.**

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In the cafeteria of Kingston primary school there was the usual delineation that occurred in such places where young people gathered together to learn. The popular kids, the sporty kids, the nerdy kids, they all had their separate areas where they grouped together, some for validation from their peers, others for protection. It was like a zoo with it's own messed up set of rules for the miniature predators and their still smaller prey.

There was one student, however, who did not fit into any of these time honoured roles and she sat alone at a table smack damn in the centre of this blackboard jungle.

If you were to look up the phrase 'socially awkward' in an encyclopedia there would very likely be a photograph of Shelley Elizabeth Potter staring manically back at you just as she was staring at her laptop screen now. With her perpetually messy raven, black hair pulled into a lopsided pony tail, held together with half a dozen brightly coloured pencils, piercing green eyes and the impressive scar on her forehead she was a decidedly pretty, if slightly odd looking, ten year old. And that was before you even got to her clothes. A bright yellow and pink vee necked tank-top over her rumpled, white shirt which almost, but not quite (unfortunately) hid a garish purple and silver starred kipper tie beneath it's overly wide collar. Even though it wasn't purposely designed to do so her outfit had the very welcome bonus of keeping anyone from bothering her. Plus, she at least, thought that it was _really_ pretty.

Every other student here at the State sponsored school wore subtle variations on the dull green and grey uniform but Shelley, in this as in most things, definitely marched to the beat of her own drum. She could not abide dull, lazy and, most importantly, the unimaginative and uninteresting use of colour. As was evidenced by the fact that she had turned up on her first day of school, holding her older cousin's hand and dressed in orange and lilac dungarees with a royal purple shirt and pink wellington boots. She had then proceeded to make her meticulously prepared point about why she should be allowed to ignore the dress code to the faculty. A point which she had won. That this may have had more to do with her headteacher's reluctance to let someone of her staggering brilliance turn down a place at his school over somethinng so trivial as a uniform issue mattered not one iota to her. The important thing was that she had won. Shelley, even at the tender age of six, was rabidly prideful and loved nothing more than getting her own way. Especially since she was always right.

She had managed to take up an entire table designed for six people with her solitary presence. Well her presence and her vast array of notebooks, an expensive looking laptop computer and possibly the largest applied physics textbook that anyone in her school, including the teachers, had ever seen that is. The truth was that science is hard and even Sheley with an IQ of one hundred and fifty eight struggled with some of it. But then she was only ten years old. Well a few days shy of eleven actually but still, there was plenty of time for her to learn new things and increase that. Her own personal goal was to better Kim Ung-Yong's score of two hundred and ten by the time she hit fourteen which, while it would be hard work, she considered achievable. If she worked her breaks as well as in class that is.

As the warning bell rang signalling the end of lunch Miss Potter gathered her computer and her mountain of notebooks into an large, untidy, multi-coloured, beaded bag and stood to leave. This had the undesirable result of displaying the lower half of her selected ensemble for the day to the remaining students and members of staff, all of whom wanted to shudder at it's insanity but wisely repressed the urge. Miss Potter was not known for taking insults to her clothing choices too well and everybody remembered the John Gudgeon incident with stark clarity.

It was a bit bloody difficult for them not to remember it. The insanely smart girl had made that poor boy's life a living hell after he had, very unwisely, laughed at her habitual stripey, blue and yellow stockings and pink tartan skirt. She had, at that point, ceased all extra curricular reading and instead put _all_ of her very considerable brain power to the task of driving young Mister Gudgeon to the very brink of insanity ... before pushing him over with a small smile. It was the only time anyone at the school had ever seen Shelley Potter smile and it was not something that they cared to witness again.

Normally primary school teachers would have been thrilled to see one of their young charges smile but in Shelley Potter's case they were happy to make an exception. Just as they made an exception for the topics, reading materials and schedules of study that she followed in their classrooms. It may have been her cold, emotionless voice that did it, or perhaps it was the fact that she knew more than they did about ... well, pretty much everything really. Whatever it was, they found that the only way to preserve their dignity was simply to allow her to get on with whatever the hell she did in their lessons without their input or interruption. Basically they left her well alone. Which was just the way she liked it.

.

On Sunday the Thirty first of July, Shelley awoke with a startled squeak to the gentle rocking of her large cousin tentatively shaking her. Eyes tightly closed and still feigning sleep she reached beneath her pillow and gripped the rough, aged, wooden shaft of her prized possession. Lizzy Borden's hatchet. The very same one that she had reportedly used to hack her parents to death with. Once set, Shelley twisted free and leapt from her bed brandishing the hundred and twenty year old hand axe to face her possible attacker with almost inhuman speed. On seeing who it was that had woken her she relaxed slightly. But only slightly.

"You're in my room. You can't be in my room." Shelley frowned. "Nobody's allowed in my room."

Now Dudley Dursley, contrary to popular belief, was not stupid. If he had been he would certainly have never survived to be the ripe old age of twelve while living in the same house as his extremely smart, extremely insane, cousin. Even his position of facilitator, middle man and occasional enforcer for her 'homework for cash' business that Shelley had been running for the last four years wouldn't be enough to keep him safe if she really thought that she was being attacked. His old friend Piers Polkiss, or 'nine fingered Piers' as they now called him, could attest to just how fast and how violently she responded to threats.

Dudley could live with being scared if he thought about the money, however, as this little side business of hers had proved to be surprisingly lucrative for both of them. Especially after he had moved up to secondary school last September and was able to bring in a more financially powerful class of clientele. It didn't take long for word to get around and after only three weeks at his new school he had everyone, up to and including the sixth formers, coming to him in order to take advantage of Shelley's large brain and her love of homework. This had resulted in a very comfortable standard of living for them and had enabled him to buy that electric guitar that he had been lustfully eyeing for months.

Shelley's more significant cut of their ill gotten gains had paid for her top of the line laptop which she had instantly used to set up an ebay account under a false identity. Since that day there seemed to be a never ending flow of packages into their house all of which disappeared straight into her bedroom. This was actually the first time that he had got to see what she had bought (seriously _nobody_ was allowed behind the pink door of the room marked with the legend 'Daddy's Little Princess', not even Vernon) and, despite the current danger, Dudley was more than a little interested.

The walls were overflowing with hundreds of books, there were a couple of large whiteboards containing some outrageously difficult looking math problems and a huge, plasma screen TV sitting in one corner. And it was here that the most surprising things were. What caught his attention most was the electronic dance mat and the four dozen or so yuri anime DVD's haphazardly surrounding it. Bloody hell, it turned out that his scary little cousin _did_ actually know how to have some fun. You know, normal kind of fun as opposed to what usually made her laugh like scaring the piss out of the local kids with her weird, psychotic behaviour.

Dudley's eyes finally finished their interested gawking and landed on the enraged eleven year old's own emerald orbs once more. Crap. He needed to apologize and to make sure that it was good enough that she would refrain from emulating her strange, American heroine whose hatchet she was still waving ominously in his direction.

"I know and I'm _really_ sorry but mum and dad wanted me to get you for your birthday breakfast Shell Bell."

It was a risk calling her that pet name that his dad used but Dudley felt that he had very little to lose here. Other than his thumbs and possibly his life of course. Thankfully the green eyed lunatic in the Hello Kitty pajamas brightened immediately at this welcome piece of news and tossed her weapon back onto the bed while treating her large boned cousin to a manic grin.

"Oh. Well why didn't you say so Big D. Shall we?"

She offered him her arm and the relieved young man escorted her down the stairs for the start of her birthday celebrations. He was in the middle of congratulating himself for avoiding a potentially very painful maiming incident this morning when she spoke again in that odd and not at all comforting monotone. Her actual words didn't exactly help either and Dudley had to try very hard not to trip and fall down the stairs as she said.

"By the way, if you come into my room uninvited again I'm going to cut something off." She patted is arm tenderly. "But don't worry Dudders it wont be anything that you can't live without. Painful? Yes. Vital? No."

.

There was a wide smile on the face of Vernon Dursley as the children came, chattering and teasing each other, into the spacious kitchen of Number Four Privet Drive. He honestly could not recall a time when he hadn't been totally in awe of the girl who he considered to be his surrogate daughter. One look at the little, orphaned scrap of a girl tucked into his hopeful looking wife's tight embrace had set his heart unexpectedly fluttering. Then she had reached out, grabbed his finger with her chubby little hand and giggled at him and Vernon was gone. His grumpy demeanour had evaporated almost overnight to be replaced with a wealth of emotion that few had believed him capable of.

From that day on Shelley Potter had become his darling little 'Princess' and he had lavished all of his time and energy into making sure that she, along with his much prized son, was always healthy and happy. With the blinkers typical to doting fathers everywhere he seemed totally oblivious to her odd quirks and her occasional fits of violent temper, focusing only on how beautiful, intelligent and caring she was. Especially around Dudders. They were more like brother and sister than cousins. Sure they fought sometimes, but they always seemed to resolve these issues quickly and were soon back to their playing, teasing and hand holding.

Petunia had her own reasons for adoring little Shelley that had more to do with the regret she felt for how she had treated her poor, murdered sister than any great overwhelming love for the girl. It wasn't long before this attitude changed, however. As the days and weeks passed since she had found her on their doorstep Petunia found herself more and more enamoured of the curious, inquisitive and exciteable little child who so insidiously wormed her way into the hearts of her and her family. She was a funny (peculiar) and pretty (oddly so) little thing who treated them all as if they were the most important things in the world to her.

They weren't of course, but Shelley was cunning and clever enough never to let them see that. That this was all an act on her part never once occured to either Vernon or Petunia. Dudley knew, but this was because she had made something of a 'partner in crime' of him so he, by dint of close proximity and necessity, saw far more of her ambitious and vicious side. Amazingly he still liked her despite this and they had become rather close.

The Dursley's were just finishing up their special breakfast when the doorbell rang.

Shelley looked up at the huge man (?) in the extremely stylish, to her mind, hairy suit standing and shuffling nervously on the doorstep and frowned.

"No, this isn't going to work. Simple physics dictates that there is no possible way that someone of your size can fit through this doorway without causing significant damage to Uncle Vernon's house. I'm afraid that's not acceptable. Could you perhaps send somebody more size appropriate to have whatever talk you were going to give."

"Err ... yeah ... I'll go and ask the 'eadmaster. 'E'll know what to do fer the best."

"Super." The 'girl-who-lived' flashed him a dazzling smile that made his heart expand so much that he thought it might burst. "That would great. Thanks."

"'Ere, you'd best have this to read while I go talk to 'im." His eyes misted up as he looked down at the small daughter of his long dead friends. "I'll see you at 'Ogwarts Shelley."

Confuse, the girl accepted the yellow parchment package with a nod before distractedly dismissing him with a wave of her hand as she shut the door in his face.

It was a letter written in a slightly pompous form of old English from a 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry' informing her that she was a witch and had been accepted to the place for study. Coool. Having new things to learn always excited her. Oh yeah and she was possibly some kind of 'witch' as well but she would need to have a great deal more evidence, backed up by testing and a thorough experimental process for her to be able to accurately confirm that hypothesis. The big man that had made this delivery certainly didn't look much like a wizard, that was for sure.

Perhaps whoever this Headmaster Albus Percival Brian Wulfric Dumbledore sent next would allow her to do some more conclusive examinations and even ... _experiments_. Shelley loved experiments. The people she performed them on were, generally speaking, much less enamoured of them as her methodology did tend to be a little rough for them. Psychologically speaking as well as physically. This new person was her favourite kind of subject though. One who didn't know her. Fresh meat for the grinder.

Shelley skipped back to the kitchen with a mad, dreamy smile on her face that made her aunt and uncle sigh with happiness and worried her cousin no end.

.

The next time the non-descript, red door opened it revealed a stern looking, older woman with dark hair pulled into a tight, severe bun, wearing wire rim spectacles, dark green robes and a tall, pointed hat. Now _this_ looked much more like the witches of her imagination.

"Now this is more like it."

Professor McGonagall blinked at the small, black haired girl in the doorway who was looking at her with an almost hungry expression on her face. It was a tribute to just how different and colourful her clothing choices were that Minerva McGonagall barely even noticed the lightning bolt shaped scar on her forehead. Stripes, tartans and polka dots in bright yellow, hot pink, jet black and electric blue really shouldn't work together ... and they didn't. Not even slightly.

She struggled valiantly in an attempt to keep her bubbling laughter buttoned up behind her fierce, stern, 'Deputy Headmistress' mask. And failed spectacularly.

"Oh the headmaster's going to just _love_ you Miss Potter."

During her visit it had become very clear, very quickly that Shelley Potter was highly intelligent but it was just as clear that the girl had absolute no concept of socially acceptable behaviour or any kind of mental filters whatsoever. Honestly, by the time she left after a surprisingly pleasant lunch shared with the Dursleys and their charge, she was feeling more than a little shell shocked. She had been entirely overwhelmed by the sheer amout of questions that the small girl had asked, about everything from her parents life at school to the nature of magic itself. And all in that strange, flat monotone that seemed totally devoid of any emotion.

She was definitely odd, but otherwise seemed to be rather mature and well adjusted for a muggle raised child finding out about magic for the first time. Or any eleven year old for that matter.

By the time she left that day Minerva McGonagall was thinking that Albus had been seriously overstating the supposedly poor conditions in which the heroine of the wizarding world had been raised. Not that she was going to be sharing that with him. The crotchety old git could get _very_ grumpy if anyone even implied that he had made a mistake of any kind. She would simply arrange to fetch the girl and her aunt the following day and escort them to Diagon Alley as planned wihout revealing just how wrong he had been about the Dursleys capabilities as parental guardians.

.

When they met the next day in order to travel to the Leaky Cauldron, Minerva was treated to a different, but equally outrageous and unco-ordinated, outfit being modelled by her charge. She thought that the hat was the worst thing about it until she actually stopped and thought about it as they wandered un-noticed through the pub and out into the shopping district. Then, seeing the reactions of the people that they passed, she got it. The deputy headmistress was rather taken aback by the elegant simplicity of Shelley's solution to the thorny issue of how she could move about in public without being mobbed by an overly grateful wizarding public.

The hat was very large, rather flambuoyant and undeniably ... _purple_. The kind of violent shade of purple that would give you an atrociously bad head-ache if you looked at it for too long. It was utterly appalling and, in Minerva's opinion, failed as an appropriate piece of headgear on almost all levels. What it did do well, however, was to completely hide the scar which would have instantly given away Shelley's identity and made their task here today a hundred times more difficult.

Honestly, with the clashing colours and her thoughtful, inquisitive expression, she looked far more like Albus Dumbledore's daughter than James Potter's. It was rather disturbing really.

.

Gringotts Bank was their first stop to collect some gold from the Potter trust vault that she would need today and, as expected, it stopped the little witch and her guardian dead in their tracks. It was a rather imposing building, inside as well as out, and served as a magnificent intrduction to the wizarding world so it was no wonder that the muggle and her muggle raised, witch niece were wholly stunned by it. Minerva would admit that it was quite rewarding to see the intelligent, confident and composed young girl gawking like that. She had honestly begun to wonder if Shelley Potter wasn't actually some kind of muggle robot with her lack of emotional response to this fabulous new world of magic.

Shelley herself, once she had got over her shock at the place, was having a great time in the bank. She had questioned their odd looking goblin escort so exhaustively that, even the eternally patient 'public relations' specialist that Gringotts used for first time visitors, had become quite short with her. This fun experiment had then been topped by the enormously fun and exciting cart ride into the bowels of the bank which had her and Aunt Petunia screaming with pleasure. Then they walked into the vault and it got even better. If this was only her trust vault then it was a fairly safe bet that her actual family vault was far bigger. And far fuller. She was rich. Like _super_ rich.

Thinking of all the new and exciting research materials that she could buy now was filling Shelley with joy. She noticed that her 'mum' was also staring around at the great piles of gold in the small vault in awe and not a small amount of poorly hidden avarice.

"Would you like some Auntie?"

"You want to give _me_ some of this?"

"Of course I do." Shelley put on her most confused and angelic expression. It had required a great deal of painstaking research and practice to get to this good but now she was something of an expert at faking emotional responses. "I love you Aunt 'Tunie."

She watched detatchedly as her mother's sister got all teary eyed and noticed that even the stern professor was having trouble staying dry eyed at Shelley's super sweet and considerate behaviour. Their goblin guide, Silvertongue, was watching her just as closely and making a mental note to speak to his superiors just as soon as he could arrange it. The manipulative girl with the exhuberant sense of what constituted 'fashion' was reminding him uncomfortably of his old drill instructor in the warrior academy (he hadn't _always_ been in public relations) with her deceptively soft words and her cold, calculating eyes.

He was just thinking how incredibly goblin-like she was acting when she proved him right again by spotting the only thing in this vault other than the galleons and making a bee-line for it.

It was a book. A book in a black, metal cover, poking out from the corner of an ancient looking satchel, mostly buried by the large, shiny coins. A book that looked awfully like a magical Grimoire. A book that this clever little witch was now examining with great care. As she pulled it free, Silvertongue realised that ancient was probably something of an understatement. He kept his peace, however, as the girl played ineffectually with the lock fitted to the front for a while, only speaking when she asked him if this was her's too.

"It is in your vault, human, therefore it must be yours."

He growled out his answer gruffly while his mind raced at the implications of it being here for her to find at all. This was a trust vault, after all, and there really _shouldn't_ be anything other than gold in it. The fact that this dark looking Grimoire was hiding in here too, subverting the almost unbreakable rules and restrictions placed by Gringotts, meant that there was some powerful magic at work. It was disturbing. All the more so when she gave a tooth filled grin at the news and quickly hid the old tome in her ugly bag and away from the prying eyes of her guardians that was even more goblin-esque than her previous behaviour.

The little witch was now reminding him less of a drill instructor and more of the cunning and mighty Ragnok himself. This girl would be one to watch.

.

"No bloody way."

The 'girl-who-lived' stamped her little foot and crossed her arms tightly across her chest, an expression of grim determination on her usually blank and placid face. Madam Malkin was accustomed to difficult and recalcitrant customers and was entirely unfazed by the young woman's impressive temper tantrum.

"It's the Hogwart's uniform dearie, everyone has to wear it."

"But it's so _dull_. Seriously grey and black, it couldn't be any less interesting if it tried and I'm not bloody wearing it. Have you people never heard of a colour pallette?"

"Yes we have, but it's _still_ the Hogwart's uniform and you _still_ have to wear it while you're at school."

Shelley decided then and there that she was going to have to hunt down a way of either dyeing or magically infusing some good, old fashioned primary colours into the drab and dreary clothing that she was being forced into. There was no bloody way that she was spending nine months of the year dressed in that monstrosity of a uniform.

.

It took the combined efforts of both Minerva and Petunia to get Shelley out of the bookshop after nearly two hours of excited browsing and a spending spree that would have rivaled Imelda Marcos in an uptown shoe store.

They had been chasing her around, alternately pleading, cajoling, bribing and threatening her for the last twenty minutes but it was only the promise of their next stop on the list that got her moving at last. It took her three trips but eventually three towering stacks of literature were wobbling dangerously on the counter. The payment for and shrinking of this vast library of magical knowledge led to a small twinge of nervousness on Shelley's part as it was the time when her new professor might notice something slightly off.

Hidden away in the piles of books were a couple of large tomes on magical theory and advanced charms that she wanted but was pretty sure would give her guide an aneurysm if they were discovered in her possession. Eleven year old muggle raised witches were probably not supposed to even be looking at this kind of stuff but Shelley was well aware that if she stuck to her first year books then she would have finished them and be bored within a fortnight. Magic was a new area of study for her and she thirsted for as much knowledge about it as she could possibly stuff into her oversized brain.

Unfortunately she had dealt with worthy, but overly concerned, educational figures for far too long to not know how _that_ conversation would go down.

So she hid them in amongst her more innocuous purchases in the hope of avoiding a tedious lecture about learning at a 'safe' (extremely bloody slow) rate.

There were also a few of items that she had seen but didn't dare to buy here today in her present company like; 'The Dark Arts; A Guide to Safe Practice', 'Technomancy for Beginners', and the wonderfully titled 'So You Want to be a Necromancer'. She really _did_ want that (It sounded enormously difficult and fun) and managed to slip away from the adults long enough to grab a catalogue and a large sheaf of 'owl order' forms from the startled assistant before running back out to rejoin her guide.

On her way back outside Shelley managed to bump into the great mane of bushy hair that she had been glimpsing between the stacks all morning, nearly knocking the short, buck toothed witch attached to it over in her haste.

"Sorry."

They spoke in unison as they bent down together to help each other sort out their own piles of freebies and prospective purchases. The bookish girl's eyes widened in surprise as she spied Shelley's latest acquisitions.

"Ooh, are those mail order forms? Now that _is_ a good idea."

And she was gone, heading to the counter in a blur of movement. What a strange girl.

She was right though. This was an absolute score. Now that she had unlimited access to any book that she wanted (well, after she had created another and highly illegal 'of age' identity that is) her summer was looking to be chock full of fun projects that she could really get her teeth into. Now she just had to find some roadkill or a freshly dug grave in a neighbour's garden and Shelley could get on with creating her own personal zombie cat.

She was fully aware that calling the bushy haired girl 'strange' at this point was just ever so slightly hypocritical.

.

Olivander's was next.

There was a fair bit of growling and scowling at both the strange old man's creepy antics and, what she considered to be, the overly long search for her wand. There _must_ be a better way to match a magical with their wand than simply trying everything in the shop. She made a mental note to look into it later. Right now, however, she was a bit distracted by her ongoing search for the 'right' wand. The wand that would choose her.

Forty two wands and an hour later they were still at it.

"Tricky customer hey? Oh well, despair not young Miss Potter, I have many more to go through ... although ... yes, it _might_ work for you. Why not?"

"Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, supple. Go on my dear, give it a try."

This time she very nearly burned the shop down before Professor McGonagall and the erstwhile proprietor managed to put out the resulting flames and exert some semblance of control.

"Oh my good Merlin, no."

As he repacked the sadly damaged and badly abused wand back into it's box Garrick Olivander stood back and surreptitiously perused the child before him once more. Carefully perused her this time. A _lot_ more carefully.

"Well it seems that you are a remarkably powerful young woman, so why not something just as remarkable and powerful for you." He nodded sagely. "Wait here a moment, I shall be right back."

Given her previous efforts Shelley doubted that anything in this place would suit her and she was starting to worry what would happen if _no_ wand chose her. Would she be 'de-witched' before she had even started? No. She would _not_ let that happen. She would force the next wand that the old man brought her to her will if she had to as there was no way that she was leaving here without one.

When it finally arrived she had been expecting another cardboard box but was surprised when, on his return, the old wandmaker presented her with, what looked like, a miniature violin case. It was beautiful. And old. Like _old_.

"Strictly speaking this isn't really a wand, but a wand-staff. Reversible of course. You simply touch the knot at the base of the focus here to change it between it's wand and staff forms." He watched Shelley intently as she stroked the magnificent instrument of magic. "Twisted compound of cherry and beech wood, core made from the treated and stretched crown scale of a red emperor dragon, with a basilisk eye focus. My ancestor crafted this over a thousand years ago for the self styled Serpent Queen of lower Egypt, though she never managed to master it."

Reverently lifting the wand-staff from it's case and wrapping her small hand around it Shelley felt it at last. That spark that Mister Olivander had been talking about when they had first begun this epic journey to find her partner in magic. This cherry and beech miracle, that was currently warming her hand and was fairly begging to be unleashed, was _it_. She had found her focus. And what a focus it was.

 _~Try me.~_

The whisper in her mind was slightly unexpected but Shelley decided that, much like her, magic was weird so she should just go with it.

She whipped around and, taking a moment to recall the memory, perfectly mimicked professor McGonagall's shrinking charm from the bookshop.

 _"Reducio."_

The old fashioned mechanical till shivered slightly before going from a two foot tall, steampunk style monster to a two inch tall toy with a surprisingly loud popping sound.

"Brilliant Miss Potter! I'm sure that you will do great things with that wand."

Mister Olivander's demeanour as he blurted out this statement told her that those 'great things' may not all be either socially acceptable or exactly legal. Not that Shelley cared about any of that as she was having too much fun with her new wand. Then she hit the little knot under her thumb and it smoked as it changed before their wide eyes into it's staff form.

She whipped the four foot staff around in a tight circle, leaving a trail of red sparks before slamming it hard into the flagstone floor and, at the professor's enthusiastic direction, calling out.

 _"Engorgio."_

There was an almighty flash and ear-splitting crack and suddenly the counter was gone. A cloud of sawdust and splinters billowed from beneath the newly enlarged till that now took up over half of Mister Olivander's place of business, dwarfing everything inside and putting a huge hole in the roof, covering the four people in ceiling plaster. Shelley broke the silence that followed this impressive (if wildly destructive) feat of magic with her usual understatement.

" _Coool._ I mean, whoops and all that, but still ... _coool_."

Petunia, by this stage, was clapping excitedly and shouting 'oh bravo darling' while at the same time feeling slightly bad for the poor shopkeeper whose store now resembled something of a disaster zone.

Minerva, on the other hand, was speechless. Utterly speechless at the easy display of incredible magic from an eleven year old girl with no magical training who had never even so much as heard of magic before two days ago. Her eyes lit up and she and applauded the feat along with Petunia before adopting her more usual stern appearance and explaining that while it was very impressive, Shelley was not actually allowed to use magic outside of school until she was seventeen.

Shelley frowned at the news. Well that just sucked.

.

Outside the wandmaker's shop in a deck chair in the middle of the Alley a ten year old witch with large grey eyes and straight, dirty blonde hair removed her sunglasses and giggled to herself. The looks that she was getting from the passers by reminded her that this kind of thing was probably why pretty much everyone except her dad called her 'Loony' Lovegood. Not that she cared about that. She didn't have time to care about that. Luna had been 'told' to be here at this time today and, as usual, her inner voice had been right.

It really had been a great show. She couldn't wait until she and Shelley Potter met properly next year.

Having the magesight could be as much of a curse as it was a blessing. One of the downsides was that most people who met her thought that she was crazy. On the upside though, she did get to see the world in a way that nobody else could, all of the fascinating colours and waves of magic and the strange ethereal, creatures that fed off of it.

And they were currently having a field day with all the powerful magic leaking out of Olivander's store along with some fairly thick, purple smoke. The ones that she had somewhat randomly named the 'bilbering humdingers' were having a particularly good time sweeping around with their mouths wide open like whales scooping up plankton. Luna was having such a good time watching her 'friends' that she almost missed he sudden movement inside the shop that indicated the people inside were getting ready to leave. It was time to go.

She sighed sadly as she packed away her chair and headed off to meet her dad in the Leaky Cauldron, thinking that next year seemed a _really_ long way away. But still she had tomorrow to look forward to when she would see the _other_ one. Luna brightened a little at this thought and began to bunny hop her way to the pub.

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After a brief stop at Fortescue's Parlour for some reviving and rather odd, but very tasty, ice-cream the Deputy Headmistress took Shelley and Petunia to their last stop. Eeylop's Owl Emporium. This was Minerva's own personal contribution to the 'girl-who-lived' and her introduction to the wizarding world. She was buying the strange little girl a post owl.

Once inside the shop the older woman was so taken aback by the heat and the ... _natural aroma_ of the inhabitants that she had to step back thus clearing the line of sight for a very special female. The snowy owl that ruled the roost of this emporium swivelled her head to examine the source of the powerful magic that had just walked into her lair. At the sight of the small, brightly coloured witch she nearly fell off her perch. Unexpected. And ... _fascinating_.

The large, white owl fluttered down from it's place in the rafters, scattering the others from it's path and landed with extreme grace and care on Shelley's left shoulder. Here it continued it's inspection of her at a much more immediate range for a while before declaring herself satisfied with a soft, but firm, preeking sound.

"Oh my what luck. Yes, yes, a match made in Avalon if ever I saw one."

The smarmy sales clerk seemed almost rabid in his eager attempts to peruade Shelley that this particular owl was the one she should choose. Although it was somewhat of a moot point really, since the owl had clearly chosen _her_. Shelley didn't believe in fate or karma but she did understand that when a clearly magical creature accepted you like this it would be extremely stupid to ignore it.

She turned her head to meet the curious amber eys of her new pet. The girl and the owl stared at each other for a good, long while. Slowly the two of them began to smile (if an owl could be said to be smiling) and they rested their foreheads together. It was a bond, not so much one of owner and pet, but more of equal partners in a shared, coming adventure.

As the odd trio left the store the staff breathed a sigh of relief. Finally someone had bought that grumpy nuisance of a snowy owl and they were now looking forward to having a much easier time of it, looking after their remaining feathery stock.

.

On reaching her bedroom that evening and having had the professor perform the enchantment to re-enlarge all of her many purchases, Shelley smiled at the adults as she gave her firm promise to go straight to bed. A firm promise that she had no intention of keeping. How could she? I mean, just look at all of this cool new stuff that she had to learn.

First things first of course though, she would have to find a way around that silly rule about not doing magic outside of school. It was simply unacceptable that she should have access to all of this fantastic theory without having the means to test her skill with it as well as all the gaping holes that she would would naturally find in them. Shelley Potter reached for the advanced charms book and set her extraordinarily beautiful mind to work on achieving her goal of nullifying this stupid 'trace' with all of her customary purpose and enthusiasm.

It took her four hours.

In magic, as in everything else that she attempted, Shelley proved to be incredibly gifted. And, usefully enough, incredibly powerful. Unknown to her, the insanely large magical core that she possessed unlocked it's multiple bindings, melded with her huge intellect and opened a door that a certain old wizard had believed to be forever sealed.

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 **A very big thank-you here to I LIKE FEAR 1-2 who very generously allowed Tenzo and I to use the reversible wand-staff idea from his very wonderful story 'Broken Angel'. If you haven't read it yet you really should. It's brutal in places but utterly brilliant and I highly recommend it.**

 **Thanks for letting us borrow your cool toy man, we'll try not to break it. Well, not** _ **too**_ **badly anyway.**

 **Reviews are our cookies and you wouldn't want us starve now would you. Seriously though the feedback would be very helpful on this one guys so do let us know how we're doing with it, and I promise that I will try and answer all of your questions. Of which I am sure there will be many.**

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 **DtR xx.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Before we start, a quick hello to Saelinne who was the first person to ask a question, and a rather sensible one at that, and so gets a cookie and a mention.**

 **Now then, in this chapter we are focusing on the second of our main characters in this 'Excellent Adventure'. This rather magnificent OC is all Tenzo's, very kindly gifted to me to use in whatever twisted way I desire, mwahaha. Seriously though it took a lot of work and a lot of discussion to get this character right so I hope that you all enjoy reading about her as much as we did putting her together.**

 **Also a cameo appearance from a certain kick-ass lady from the very fantastic Resident Evil franchise happens here. It goes without saying that we do not own Resident Evil or Harry Potter otherwise we'd be spending a lot more time playing around like this than we do.**

 **Work sucks. Kind of gets in the way too.**

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 **Big love to the mighty Tenzo51 without whom this story wouldn't have even happened, let alone be anywhere near as good as it is.**  
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 **I'm not JKR and I don't make any money from this. Which is a bit of a shame.**

 **DtR xx.**

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 **The Excellent Adventure of a Wolf, a Loony and a Very Bored Heroine.**

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 **2\. If You Go Into The Woods Today.**

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On top of a hill, deep in the thick forest that lay on the North Eastern border of Alaska and Canada sat a huge, ramshackle estate that looked to the outside observer to be abandoned. It's redwood walls and grey stone doorways were certainly very old, but if one were to take a closer look they would see that what appeared to be disrepair was simply age. More careworn than neglected. The ivy and brambles that curled up it's sides and framed it's entrances made the old place blend into the surrounding, natural landscape perfectly. Or at least as perfectly as a building covering eight and a half thousand square feet with three acres of sweeping, if overgrown, lawns could blend in.

It was this large, elderly mansion and it's many outbuildings that served as the Summer quarters of a very special group of magical creatures, the Royal Pack of the 'True Wolves'.

They were led by their Alpha and Queen, a fierce and powerful, greying woman who was simply referred to by the traditional title of 'The Amarok'. Her line had ruled over the wolves for many centuries, since the rumour shrouded time of the first 'Great Wolf of the North' and they were held in the highest regard by all of their kin, not just in the Americas, but across the World.

The Amarok was so respected that, whenever she dispatched an ambassador or a peace-keeper to a trouble spot, whatever problems there had been on the ground simply seemed to melt away knowing that the attention of the great Queen was upon them. The real treat for her people though was when she held court twice a year, allowing those with grievances or issues between individuals, or even entire packs, to come and have them resolved by her serene and ultimate wisdom. This was especially exciting for them as they got to see the 'Royal' family, not just the Queen, but also her son Roald, his wife and her grand-daughter. The adored and admired Artemis Amarok. The first white wolf to be born into their World for more than two hundred years.

She was their hope, their idol, their Princess and they would travel thousands upon thousands of miles just to catch a single glimpse of her. Not that she was exactly an angel, mind you.

.

She stalked through the dense forest silently, each careful step managing to avoid the hidden, dry twigs that could snap and give away her location to her happily oblivious prey. As she got closer the Alaskan 'true' wolf dropped to all fours and flattened her ears against her head. Her haunches quivered in anticipation as the young wolf cubs played on in the deep shadows of the tall canopy unaware that they were being watched.

In a sudden burst of motion, the snow white blur shot from the tree-line bowling over the first four cubs and headed snarling to the startled juveniles, baring her fangs at them before skidding to a halt. Her amused dark brown and amber eyes twinkled as she whipped out her hands, retracting her claws at the last second, and cuffed two of her cousins across the sides of their heads, then turned tail and set off on a deceptively calm looking, loping run in the opposite direction. A great, high howl went up behind her and the chase was on.

The small, white wolf streaked through the trees and undergrowth, her long limbs moving gracefully but at speed, always within sight of the chasing pack but easily staying just tantalisingly out of their reach. They had played this game, that was not a game, many times before and the result was always the same. It didn't put the cubs off from trying to catch their much admired, pale furred cousin mind, but seemed to inspire them to become stronger, faster and perhaps, finally, one day to be able to best the wolf girl. Not that any of them could hope to really. Their cousin and friend was just that good

All of them were indeed so involved in the chase that they paid little heed to where she was actually leading this merry dance to and the consequences that would inevitably come out of their mad rush to her chosen location. If they had realised then they may have thought twice about following her. But probably not.

Chaos reigned as the excited youngsters of the pack burst out of the thick brush and onto the enormous lower lawn where their elders habitually met to carry out the business of running the continent's many true, half and were wolves. The cubs and juveniles ran full pelt, twisting and turning between the legs of their parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents in pursuit of their laughing quarry. Right up until the point that she crashed into her own mother in and knocked her flying into a tightly packed group of elders. It was like watching an intricate pattern of dominoes as one knocked the next over until that entire part of the clearing was filled with the tangled, struggling limbs of a great many extremely annoyed and cursing Royal Council wolves.

Everything was dead silent for a brief moment until the young ones howled their pleasure at the hilarious sight of the horrified, red faced figure of their trouble-making pack Princess. Artemis Amarok was in a crap load of trouble. Again.

.

Alice didn't remember much about her former life. Not even her last name. Of course, that hadn't been an issue for over a decade now since she had married into the Amarok's pack. The Great Alpha Wolf's only son in fact.

Before their initial meeting, Alice had been a bit of a nomad. She might not remember her former life but it certainly hadn't forgotten about her if the many attempts to re-capture her were any indication. Of course, with her unique skill-set this proved an increasingly futile task for whoever it was that wanted her so badly that they sent team after team of hard faced, heavily armed soldiers after her.

So, she became a wanderer out of necessity, avoiding the centres of population that were seemingly filled with agents of the unknown hunter. She also took to wearing darkened glasses whenever she did occasionally need to interact with other people since her eyes were apparently the biggest give away to her identity. Alice actually thought that the segmented pale red and blue irises that she possessed were rather pretty but it didn't really matter how pretty there were if she could never show them off to anyone without risking another upsurge in violence.

Alice had lived for those times when she could be truly free. Places where humans were so sparse that it didn't matter what she wore or how she acted. Places like the Flathead National Forest on the Western edge of Montana, a two and a half million acre, paradise of closed canopy woodland and empty mountains sandwiched between the old Blackfeet and Flathead Reservations. It had become her own personal playground and her hide-away from the dogged pursuit of those shadowy figures from her un-remembered past. And it was where she had first met the young prince of the true wolves, Roald Amarok, who was on his home from his traditional 'great journey'.

Although 'met' was probably the wrong word.

In reality, the two had quite literally run into each other in a small clearing on the eastern shore of Bear Creek. Alice had just finished her morning swim in the creek and was heading back to her newest cave in the foothills when Roald, having riled a grizzly, was pelting along in his wolf form oblivious to the genetically enhanced, naked human right up to the point at which he hit her. The impact from his compact, muscular body would have taken down a fully mature elk so the frail looking female stood no chance whatsoever.

The wolf immediately stopped and approached the prone woman, hoping against hope that he hadn't killed her, and started sniffing at her apparently unconscious form. That was when, to his surprise, she sprang up and punched him in the head. Hard. Certainly harder than any human should have been able to. So hard in fact that it forced him to shift back to his human form. Also naked. The two of them took a moment to appreciate each other's genetically superior physical attributes. And then they went to war.

At some point in their epic, hour long battle the punching, kicking and fighting turned into something far less war-like and far more heated and ... intimate. Intimate enough that in that wild, wooded and once serene place the new, half breed princess of the great Alaskan True Wolves was conceived.

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Artemis Amarok was the last descendant of the great 'true' wolves of the North and regarded as a princess by not just hers, but _all_ , of the remaining packs scattered across the continent of North America and beyond. It wasn't just her blood or her snow white pelt that set her apart though. Artemis was unique among the wolves for being the only one of them to be able to partially shift almost any part of her body that she chose, whenever she chose to do so. For her pack, it was a source of immense pride and wonder. For Artemis herself it was a decidedly more mixed blessing.

It certainly made her much faster, much stronger and far more dangerous than any of her peers but it also made her far more playful and wilful. Her human and wolf natures co-existed together in an uneasy kind of harmony that sometimes clashed uncomfortably, making her behaviour _challenging_ to say the least. Artemis (Arte' to her friends) was as imperfect psychologically as she was perfect physically.

She moved with the same grace and purpose as a human that came so naturally to her in her wolf form. She could also, in her human state, do ... other things. Strange things. For example, when she was in a particularly peaceful and meditative mood, flowers and saplings seemed to sprout up and grow around her. Also when she was in full flight, hunting with the pack, obstacles that they had to leap over or manouvre around simply appeared to move from her path of their own accord.

The pack found it strange but never thought about why it happened for her. They certainly never attributed it to magic, well not the wizard and witch kind of magic anyway. It happened and they accepted it because she was the White Wolf and it all just added to the legend of their adored pack princess.

Alice and Roald's daughter had taken the best from both of her parents' gene pools. Her father's incredible natural senses and affinity for the deep forests and her mother's precise, clinical ability with any and all forms of weaponry, including her own lithe, toned body. The wild and impetuous, trouble-making attitude that she possessed, however, was all her own. And it was this that meant that she spent more time being disciplined by her grandmother than any other member of her pack.

Of course, for Artemis, being disciplined by Granny Amarok was a bit like being savaged by a two month old bunny rabbit. Mainly because she was the absolute apple of her grandmother's eye and she always seemed more amused than upset by the antics of the wild, little pack princess. Her 'punishments' generally involved her being forced to spend time tutoring the young cubs in how to train their fledgeling senses, something which she would have happily done anyway since she adored the 'kids'.

So it was that she found herself leading a group of six youngsters out into the lightly wooded scrub near the river, a few hundred yards downstream of their camp to practice their tracking and stalking techniques. It was important for the young ones to hone their skills in this area and to learn to differentiate between the natural scents of the forest and that of their prey. And their predators. Not that they would have many of those once they grew up but as cubs they were still vulnerable to bears and hunters. It was best to learn that lesson early and fast.

She may not have been everyone's first choice to supervise such an important lesson due to her penchant for causing mischief but nobody doubted Artemis' commitment to teaching their cubs these necessary skills. Her charisma and undoubted popularity with the young pack members also meant that they would listen to every word she said to them without any of the usual backchat. As it turned out that was a very good thing tonight.

"Down."

The group of small wolves hit the forest floor on their bellies and watched in wonder as a three wheeled flying machine crashed through the saplings mere inches above their heads and ploughed into the earth, leaving a trail of destruction in it's wake. The ethereal, acrid smoke stung their eyes and the fumes spewing from scorched ground burned in their nostrils. Artemis and her cubs were so busy coughing and retching from the strong and decidedly odd residue from the machine that they didn't notice the rest of the pack come charging up to the crash site.

Alice stood her full five feet and ten inches tall and growled at the weird, lumpy creature who was still extricating himself from the gigantic, three wheeled mechanical abomination. He stopped his struggling for a moment and peered into the darkness that was lit by dozens of fierce amber eyes before brushing a large clod of dirt from his jacket and asking.

"Would you by any chance know where I can find an ... Art'mis Am'ruk."

The woman with the multi-coloured 'umbrella' eyes sighed in resignation. She might have known this would have something to do with her wayward daughter. Trouble followed that girl around like a bad smell.

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Hagrid sat on a huge, fallen tree trunk on the lawn of the pack's Summer residence, happily munching on a moose leg which, in deference to his semi-human physiology, had been roasted on a small fire pit. He had never been as pleased as when the Headmaster had given him this assignment to approach the Royal wolf pack to inform them of the presence of a witch in their midst. His understanding of, and empathy with, magical creatures made him the perfect candidate for this approach. Well that and his possession of a flying motorbike that was capable of transporting the prospective student to Diagon Alley in speed and relative safety.

The half giant was very proud of his selection for this important mission. And after the debacle at the residence of the 'girl-who-lived' he was determined to do better this time.

Admittedly the initial introduction had not gone as smoothly as he had hoped. Apparently nearly wiping out a quarter of the Royal Pack's cubs by crashing his bike into the scrub where they were doing some late night training was a bit of a faux pas. Not to mention the danger to their vaunted 'Princess'. Who was also, it turned out, the target of his mission. However, once tempers had cooled he had been brought before the Alpha to explain himself and the two of them had gotten along like a house on fire.

It was slightly un-nerving to be having their discussion in front of all of these very dangerous looking wolves but, pack behaviour dictated it so he sucked it up and delivered his message and invitation to Hogwarts anyway. Of course, when he said something wrong he realised just how much danger he was actually in from these wild creatures. A rarity for him. Not saying something stupid, you understand, but actually realising the peril that it put him in.

"As you can see we are not a unknown pack, at least not in terms of the creatures of this World, and I assume that my grand-daughter will be receiving offers from other prestigious schools of magic now that her magical prowess is known." She gave Hagrid a cunning little smirk. "So, tell me why I should send her three and half thousand miles away to a country that ignores us for our heritage at best and hates us for it at worst."

"Well the 'eadmaster, professor Dumbledore that is, is a great teacher, great man an' all, always looking to 'elp out the disadvantaged. And also, there's the scholarship fund that the 'eadmaster set up specifically to help young wizards and witches afflicted with the 'curse of the moon' so you wouldn't have to pay a single knut in fees."

Hagrid tailed off as the chorus of menacing growls and flashing amber eyes came from every corner of the clearing. Oh yes. _Lots_ of danger here.

"Are you comparing _us_ to those mangy, half breed werewolves? Or are you perhaps saying that we can't afford to pay our own way?"

"Err ... No?"

He gripped his pink umbrella hard, feeling for the hidden wand there, when the hotter heads among the pack began to advance on him. Thankfully the Alpha stepped in on his behalf in good time.

"Calm yourselves my children. I'm sure that Mister Hagrid, being from Britain, is simply unaware of our kind since we have never travelled to his homeland." The elderly Alpha turned to their visitor and gave him a sharp toothed smile that was anything but comforting. "This is something that we shall be sure to remedy during his stay with our pack."

And remedy it they did. His overnight stay with the wolves was spent doing what Hagrid loved the most. Watching the social interaction of magical creatures in their own environment. The fact that he was being included in these interactions was almost too much for the big, soft hearted half giant and he was very nearly in tears by the time that the pack agreed to let their favourite daughter attend the school where he worked. Not that they could have stopped her if she really wanted to go. Headstrong was a word that could have been invented with Artemis Amarok in mind.

Having finally got to meet her at their pre-dawn breakfast gathering, Hagrid now understood why this decision had taken as long as it had. He, like all of those who came into contact with the cute, charismatic wolf girl with the snow white hair, was utterly captivated by her.

She it seemed did not reciprocate these feelings quite so easilly. Nor was it simple to convince her that going to a boarding school so far from her pack for nine months of the year was a good idea.

Eventually though she was won over. It may have been the idea of learning new magic that could help her family, or her grandmother telling her what a fantastic opportunity this was. Although it was more than likely something to do with Hagrid's highly illegal display of transfiguration that he performed on one of her cousins, planting the idea of new and awesome pranks in her mind. But whatever it was, Artemis was, at last, convinced. She still had a few questions though.

"So, what happens now?"

"I'm to take you shoppin' fer yer school supplies."

"In Britain? But how the hell are we going to get there?"

"Well that's why I brung me motorbike."

"You have _got_ to be shitting me."

Artemis received a sharp, but soft cuff across the back of her head from Grandma for her language but didn't look even slightly sorry for it. And it's not like she shouldn't be concerned about their method of transport. The bloody thing had scared her half to death when it had nearly killed them the previous night and that was when she was on the ground. She would never admit it but the idea of sitting in this damned death-trap as it _flew_ across the _Atlantic Ocean_ no less, left her in a cold sweat.

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Alice was gripping tightly to the half giant in front of her shaking with laughter, rather than fear, as she watched her daughter behaving like a two year old puppy. Head and shoulders pushed all the way out of the sidecar, ears flattened against hair and tongue lolling out, savouring the flavours of the air, Artemis reveled in the intense wind pushing at her face. Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song, one of the girl's all time favourites blasted from her ipod and all three of the riders of this machine, whose heyday was just when this awesome tune was shiny and new, headbanged along with it.

Any TransAtlantic passengers from North America to Europe, looking out of their windows would have been curled up in hysterical laughter as well had they been seen. Well as long as they could get over the shock of seeing a badly abused, vintage, British motorcycle flying alongside of them, that is.

Their landing in Diagon Alley was neither quiet, nor subtle, nor exactly unobtrusive and they had garnered a great deal of attention from the sloppy, bouncing skid to a halt that Hagrid clumsily performed. They had also narrowly missed taking out several well to do wizarding families with their unorthodox arrival so most of that attention was on the negative side of unwelcome.

Awe and wonder. Despite themselves these were the main feelings that Alice and Artemis felt coursing through them. Wizards in general and British wizards in particular were not well liked by any of the Wolf packs, due to their antiquated views on everything from the modesty of their clothing to blood purity and social standing. The Amarok women shared in this distaste fully. This was rather ameliorated though by the fact that the stalls and shops in the Alley were just so incredible. And the bank was even more so.

.

"Mornin' Grip'ook. I'm 'ere to make a withdrawal from the Werewo ... er ... 'special' 'Ogwarts fund." The big man then lowered his voice to what he considered to be a whisper but actually still carried to just about every corner of the bank lobby. "And I need to fetch somethin' from vault seven thirteen for the 'eadmaster."

Too late he glanced about him to check that that no-one was listening. Unsurprisingly everybody in the bank had heard but they all quickly avoided meeting his eye.

"Now then you two just sit here and I'll be back 'afore you know it."

Alice and her daughter sat and gazed around them at the magnificent, marble lobby, feeling slightly nervous since they hadn't been in any buildings like this, well ever really. It also didn't help that a lot of people were giving them some rather funny, interested and, in some cases, disgusted looks and an extremely wide berth.

Still, the goblins were being nice. Well not necessarily _nice_ , but at least they weren't openly hostile, rather preferring to ignore them. As wolves (Alice _was_ considered part of the pack by now, and for a very good reason) anything that didn't involve spitting insults and snarling at each other was considered a mark of respect between species.

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At the next teller down a petite, but impeccably dressed blonde girl listened in with growing interest as the Hogwarts gamekeeper unconsciously revealed his companion's heritage to the entire bank. Hannah Abbott _loved_ magical creatures and werewolves, while not quite as magical as unicorns, griffons and the like, were still marvelously exciting. She turned to her mother and tugged on her robes to get her attention.

"Do you think she's actually a werewolf mum?"

"Hannah dear, do be quiet, I'm concentrating. Oh, and if she is ... one of _them_ , I don't want you associating with her. Dirty, dangerous beasts, the lot of them."

This was pretty typical of the attitude of British wizards towards their inferior relatives so not a great surprise to either Alice or Artemis. It was one of the main reasons why they had been so hesitant to accept the invitation to Hogwarts in the first place. The Brits were nasty, narrow minded people who seemed to find fault in every species that wasn't them. Even their fellow wizards weren't immune from their scorn unless they could trace their magical lineage back at least half a dozen generations.

Blood purity. What a crock of shit. Even the most dull witted were creatures knew that you needed new blood lines to strengthen and diversify your pack. If you failed to do so there was only one result.

Weakness.

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Artemis walked into the fitting room of Madame Malkin's and began to undress. Only to stop abruptly as a clearly excited face, red from the effort of holding herself back until she was seen, bobbed up into her field of vision. The strange blonde human began hopping on the spot with her fists clenched whispering 'yes, yes, yes.' to herself before she finally seemed to gain control her obviously over-emotional state enough to speak.

"Oh cool, you're that werewolf from the bank aren't you."

The hugely excited, magical creature loving, blonde, pureblood didn't pause long enough for Artemis to object to this statement/question but simply ploughed on without regard to the other girl's darkening look.

"So, are you a dark werewolf or a light werewolf? My mum's always saying how all werewolves and merfolk and such are 'dark' creatures but I don't know that they are. I mean there must be _some_ of them who don't go around killing and maiming innocent people all the time and since, by the looks of that uniform, you'll be going to Hogwarts too you can't be _that_ dangerous. Headmaster Dumbledore would never allow anything that could hurt us at the castle."

Hannah was just as totally and spectacularly wrong about the last point in her diatribe as she was about everything else that she had, unthinkingly, spilled from her mouth in that constant, breathless stream. Unfortunately, she had no idea that this was actually the case or that she had just rather badly insulted the girl that she was questioning by calling her a werewolf. Twice. Although that she had obviously said _something_ wrong was beginning to dawn on her now as a low, rumbling growl filled the small fitting room very effectively.

She watched in complete fascination as the white haired girl's strange, segmented irises changed colour from their pretty pale green and pink to a positively _gorgeous_ golden amber and chocolate brown. Then in wonder and awe as a pair of furry, pointed ears sprouted from her hair and, most worryingly, the snarling grin forming on her face that was filled with a lot of teeth. Very large, very sharp looking, very pointy teeth.

The self preservation, 'fight or flee' instinct finally over-rode her innate curiosity and Hannah's muscles tensed in anticipation. Then, not being much of a fighter, she ran.

This turned out to be a really, _really_ bad idea.

Alice and Madam Malkin's conversation about age appropriate underwear was brought to a shocked halt as a half undressed, screaming, smallish blonde girl careered out of the fitting room at a pace that would have put an Olympic sprinter to shame. However great her sudden burst of speed was though, it was certainly no match for the snowy blur that took her down to the floor when she was barely half way across the shop.

Having caught her prey, Artemis was now slightly unsure of what to do with her. The small witch beneath her was squirming and wriggling, struggling to break free of her captor. The friction against the wolf's lower abdomen was making her feel strange and fuzzy minded. Not being about to let her prize go, however, she did the only thing that she could think of, nuzzling the thick, blonde, sweet smelling hair out of the way and closing her mouth lightly on the back of the girl's neck. All motion ceased as the girl under her suddenly felt teeth nipping lightly at the sensitive skin on her neck and also began to feel some of what Artemis did.

"You do realise that you're about to mark that girl as your mate, don't you?"

"Eeep!"

Alice's interjection into the weird little tableau got their attention fast. The wolf and the witch flew apart like they had opposing poles of magnets attached to them and a very shame-faced Artemis studied her feet and mumbled out.

"Sorry mum."

"Not to me." Alice reprimanded. "I'm not the one you just hunted down and mauled."

"'M sorry."

"'S okay."

The two girls mumbled at each other while trying to regulate their suddenly racing heartbeats and cool their reddened cheeks.

"She really is sorry you know, she's just not used to being around this many people. I think I'm going to have to take her into Anchorage and re-introduce her to society before I let her loose in a boarding school full of humans."

The two females who weren't currently staring at the floor red faced smirked, one playfully, the other shyly, at each other.

"I'm sorry, how incredibly rude of me, I never asked your name."

Hannah held out a hand politely as she had been raised to do. Admittedly her mum would probably have had kittens if she had known that this polite introduction was being offered to 'dirty and dangerous' werewolves.

"Alice Amarok, and the grumpy little wolf is my daughter, Artemis."

"Hannah Abbott, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"What lovely manners, Miss Abbott." Alice jerked her head towards her child, who was now intent on scratching behind her ear. "I'll get her to write you a proper apology when she finally manages to locate hers."

"Oh, she doesn't have to do that."

"She _really_ does ... and she _really_ will."

Alice shook her head at Artemis while trying not to smile. The mischievous white wolf just coudn't seem to keep her eyes off of the delightfully cute and charming Miss Abbott. It appeared that her daughter had inherited more from her father than just his hunting abilites and a shared taste in Seventies rock music. Once she hit puberty she was going to be like a ... well ... a wolf in heat.

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Up in the rafters of the shop, hidden away beneath her father's elven cloak, the small, grey eyed witch grinned happily to herself as she watched the participants of this rather fun little farce finish their business.

Another day and another interesting witch for Luna to study. Although this one wasn't _just_ a witch now was she. Due to her intense interest and intensive study in the field of magical creatures (both real and imaginary) Luna Lovegood may have been one of the very people in Britain to know about the True Wolves. And being so she had only just restrained herself from laughing out loud at the reckless and impulsive little witch/wolf's capture of the clueless Hannah Abbott.

Her inner voice had never been wrong about the interesting places and people that it took her to but, even so, this level of entertainment factor was very rare indeed. She wondered if either the white wolf or the blonde pureblood below her actually realised exactly what they had started here. She was pretty sure that this Artemis' muggle (but only just) mother knew since she was also struggling to hold back her giggles.

While it was true that the wolves mating rituals could drag on for many months, even years, it was also a fact that they could be initiated and completed in an instant. It was kind of like their version of love at first sight she supposed. She certainly knew what that felt like. Her initial reaction to the very, _very_ pretty 'girl-who-lived' proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt. She and Shelley Potter may be only ten and eleven respectively but Luna _knew_ that they were destined to be together forever.

To be honest it could have been extremely inconvenient if her and Shelley's 'third' had chosen to mate with someone in her home country so Luna would take the slight annoyance of having this tag along with good grace. At least this way they would all still be together. Once she joined them at Hogwarts next year that is. Which was now seeming a _really_ long way away.

The dirty blonde, amateur magi-zoologist gave a heavy sigh then, seeing her target collect her bags and make for the door, she dropped silently to the floor and prepared to follow. This presented the perfect opportunity to test out Daddy's new stealth mode on the cloak. She might well get caught, especially since her target could literally smell her from a mile away, but in Luna's strangely mis-wired brain this only added to the fun.

.

Straight after the kerfuffle in Madame Malkin's, on Hagrid's suggestion, they hit the wandmaker's shop. Little Artemis was clearly very embarrassed and confused by her behaviour and he wanted to give her something else to concentrate on. He remembered how excited he had been when he had got his own wand many years before and thought that this experience was pretty much guaranteed to cheer her up. It wouldn't really but he was at least trying to help.

People trying to hide from Artemis was never a great idea and being able to sense that someone was following them but unable to actually catch sight of them had worsened her mood even before she had set foot in Olivander's. Then she met the proprietor himself and things went even further downhill fast.

The creepy old man in the corner jumped and his disillusionment spell failed as the pale girl growled and snapped her head around to stare in his direction the second she entered his shop. He felt a small drop of wee escape when he saw those sharp teeth bared at him and decided, there and then, to be as expeditious as possible in his search for her wand. As excited as he had been yesterday with Miss Potter's marvellous display of her natural talents, so he was equally frightened by those of today's visitor. She had literally just scared the piss out of him.

Once bolstered by the huge, comforting presence of Hagrid and the girl's sensible, but no less dangerous, looking mother, he approached and began a serious study of the scowling girl. One word leapt to his mind ... _Wolf_ ... well, two words actually ... _Dangerous Wolf_. Fortunately for both him and his underwear this made his job today considerably easier.

Like most witches and wizards of creature blood the girl would have an affinity with nature and so be strong in Transfiguration. A dark, hard wood then from somewhere remote and unspoiled. Being at least part wolf also made her both aggressive and somewhat predatory which cut the choice of magical cores down further. There would be no unicorn hair fluffy finesse for _this_ witch. Finally, making sure that he asked her permission first, the tape measure was deployed to give him his last parameter and he hustled off to select a mere eight wands for her to try out.

No-one was more pleased than Garrick Olivander when, on only her third attempt, a huge spray of blindingly bright, white sparks shot out into the tense atmosphere of the shop.

"Twelve inches of aged, Brazilian mahogany with the heartstring from a particularly vicious Hungarian Horntail dragon for the core." He paused at this point, unable to prevent his customary dramatics, despite the danger. "A powerful wand, Miss Amarok, excellent for both Transfiguration and combat spells. Defensive combat obviously."

He smiled obsequiously as he quickly added the last words but needn't have bothered since Artemis wasn't paying him the slightest bit of attention now. She was far too busy waving her new, almost black, wand, trailing sparks around like a mad thing with the smallest trace of a grin on her face. Annoyed and embarrassed she may have been but she couldn't help herself. This wand was _sooo_ cool.

His interruption of her fun to inform her and her mother of the rules about not using magic outside of her schooling for the next six years wiped that grin away very effectively. Impossible though it seemed, she left the wandmaker's in an even fouler mood than when she had entered.

.

The rest of their shopping trip was, understandably, conducted in almost total silence apart from a few grunts of assent from Artemis when she was required to choose styles or colours of her equipment. In fact, the only time the two adults got anything more out of her was when they visited the owl emporium to purchase a suitable post bird that would be capable of trans-Atlantic travel.

Bulvar the eagle owl had only been brought into the main roost the day before, after the departure of the previous 'queen' of the aviary who had been bought and dispatched off with her new owner. The two of them had apparently had some _issues_ when sharing a confined space together. When majestic winged creature had caught sight of the young wolf, however, there were no such problems.

He dropped from his lofty perch and immediately began grooming the heavenly smelling lupine girl with his beak, chirping and precking as he did so. She giggled and he hooted at her to stay still so he could finish. It was love at first sight for the pair of them. And it put Artemis in a much better mood which lasted all the way up until the time that they got home.

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It was impossible to keep secrets from the pack. Mainly due to the telepathic connection that they shared. It _was_ possible, however, to use her more frivolous thoughts to avoid and misdirect the inquisitive minds of her wolfy family. Unfortunately, after about an hour Artemis realised that their curiosity about her adventure in magical Britain was simply too strong in this case and she buckled under the effort of keeping them out. Embarrassing though the details of her trip were, it was marginally less embarrassing than collapsing under mental strain of trying to hide her mis-deeds and she sighed as she finally let the pack in. Better to suck it up and get all the jibes out of the way now than to be seen as weak in front of those that she may have to lead one day.

As she knew it would be, it was bad.

The yips and howls of their delighted laughter followed Artemis everywhere she went for the next two days and it was really starting to grate. Although that wasn't nearly as bad as all the 'helpful' advice that the older wolves were intent on giving her about how she should go about wooing her cute, blonde, witchling mate. That there was no judgement from her pack, just plain, old fashioned amusement at the situation in which she now found herself, didn't even help that much either.

These weren't the only reactions to Artemis' trip. One or two of the elders seemed unhappy that the princess of the royal pack was considering taking a human witch as a mate and they had no hesitation in voicing their concerns. Not to the girl herself of course, or even her mother, but to the cub's grandmother. Their only answer was a fearsome, outraged growl that silenced them immediately. The Amarok was not alpha of all the wolves for no reason and the dissenters were persuaded that any further intrusion into the private affairs of her most beloved grand-daughter would be met with tooth and claw rather than words. They lowered their heads in submission and shut the hell up.

The little wolf herself wasn't aware of these goings on in the high reaches of the royal council and instead was mostly caught up in fending off the increased attention from her cousins and friends that her adventure had garnered her. She loved them to bits, especially the younger ones, but they were just of relentless in their favourite new game of teasing the great British witch seducer as they now called her. It took all of her considerable will power not to cuff the little curs around the head when they started on her. An effort that was sometimes not enough, leading to some quite epic chases and play fights in the forest that they called home.

Then her dad came home and things got _much_ worse.

"Arte'." He wrapped the grinning girl up in a crushing hug and held on long enough that she began to wriggle and struggle in the embrace before setting her down and frowning in mock seriousness. "And just what exactly have _you_ been getting up to my little huntress."

He already knew, of course, but it was so much more fun getting his daughter to tell it to him herself. She always made such a game of it, his wild, curious, impetuous, spitfire of a wolfcub. And just like Artemis, Roald Amarok _loved_ the chase.

And it was a long chase, filled with embarrassed half mutters and mumbles about what she had done and why she thought that she had done it. Artemis got it almost all entirely wrong of course but then she was only eleven. Despite his amusement at his daughter's ridiculously inappropriate behaviour, Roald did agree that an apology to Hannah was more than overdue and so it was that she found herself seated at his desk with the unfamiliar parchment and quill.

It took simply _ages_ but she was not allowed back outside until it was finished to her parents' satisfaction.

Even with her mum's fake stern, but actually totally amused, looming presence and her dad's constant poking fun at her, she still managed to get it done. The huge, haughty eagle owl was dispatched on his long journey and Artemis could finally put the episode from her mind and get down to the far more important task of studying her magic books to prepare for school.

It would have all been fine and forgotten had their owl not returned a week later with a reply from Hannah. A lengthy reply. A lengthy reply filled with questions about Artemis and her life and family as well as information about Hannah and her own family. A reply that included photographs.

And just like that the whole sorry mess was dragged back into the light of day and the teasing and 'helpful' comments were renewed ten-fold.

It certainly didn't help her case that Hannah was 'just some annoying girl she met' when she was caught staring longingly at one of those pictures of the blonde witch in an incredibly cute blue summer dress.

Having seen the photographs the overwhelming reaction from the pack and, most importantly, the elders, was that the sweet human girl that their princess had 'chosen' would be an asset to them. She looked like she would bear good cubs. It wasn't like they were unaware of how powerful supposed half breeds could be. Just look at princess Artemis with her ability to force full or partial shifts seemingly on a whim and her incredible speed and accuracy with her claws as well as all kinds of human weapons. She was a half breed with the potential to be the strongest pack leader since the 'Great Wolf of the North' himself. Who knew what her cubs would be like one day.

Artemis just thought that she was cute. Annoying, but cute.

Stop it. There were more important things to think about right now. She tried her best to concentrate on her studying, wanting to be fully prepared for the start of her Hogwarts school career but her mind kept on slipping back to the soft, sweet smelling witch with the golden hair. The witch who had writhed so delightfully beneath her, sparking physical and emotional responses that she didn't have any idea how to deal with at her tender age. The witch that she desperately wanted to see again.

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 **As usual I write for me but reviews are always nice and I'd certainly never turn them away, just don't get caught up in the whole 'they would never do that' trap. This is all going to be pretty AU stuff.**

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 **DtR xx.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I've had a few questions about how these two vastly differing personalities are going to work together and I realise that I have been pretty vague about the answers that I have given you. Well, the wait is over because they are about to meet. It's not all going to resolve itself right away obviously but hopefully you can start to see what's happening with the first two of our triple threat heroines.**

 **You're going to have to just trust us on this. It's going to be a great deal of fun so let's try to have as much of that as we can hey.**

 **Big love to the mighty Tenzo51 without whom this story wouldn't have even happened let alone be as good as it is. Their advice and encouragement keeps me honest and keeps me updating.**  
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 **I'm not JKR and I don't make any money from this. Which is a bit of a shame.**

 **DtR xx.**

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 **The Excellent Adventure of a Wolf, a Loony and a Very Bored Heroine.**

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 **3\. Express Yourself.**

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On the last day of August, the Royal Pack waved a proud and fond, but slightly tearful, farewell to the snow white, eleven year old, wolf who was also a witch as she left to pursue her magical education in Britain. There weren't many in the pack that managed to remain dry eyed at her departure and this included her grandmother who was also the pack Alpha. The Amarok pressed a very expensive new i-phone into Artemis' top pocket as they shared a long, tender goodbye hug and whispered in her ear that she expected a call the moment that she touched down in London.

They both knew that the phone wouldn't work within the grounds of Hogwarts but, since Artemis was planning to try and get out of the castle for a run in the forest at least once a week, she thought that she could use it to phone home then. She wasn't sure, but really hoped that it would work for her there. The pack princess could not even imagine not being able to speak with her family until December. Sure, she had Bulvar, her proud and surprisingly loving eagle owl, to ferry letters back and forth but it wasn't the same as hearing the voices of her parents or her grandma or even the annoying cubs.

She was going to miss them like crazy.

The trip across the Atlantic was a great deal less fun this time. A first class flight on a fully loaded 747 was very nice and all but it couldn't really compete with the thrill ride of blasting along at a couple of hundred miles an hour on an ancient, flying motorcycle. Especially when said motorcycle was being piloted by a half giant with an extremely lackadaisical attitude to his passengers' safety. Or even his own for that matter. More relaxing possibly, considering that she got to listen to some seriously rocking tunes on her I-pod to distract her from the annoying presence of the 'normals', but still a lot less fun.

Even less fun was to be had on the hour long, cab ride into central London but the thrilling sights, sounds and smells of platform nine and three quarters definitely made up for that. It was just a pity that mum and dad couldn't be here to send her off to her new magical adventure properly but they had done their own hushed farewells at Vancouver airport. Just as her eyes starting to mist up at the thought of her far away family and pack a loud squealing shout came from her left and distracted her from her impending gloom.

Artemis turned to see what all the commotion was when she saw another, rather strange family come careering through the barrier which she had just exited with their eyes firmly shut. She smiled to herself as the small, black haired girl, who was clearly in charge of them, took a moment to gape about her at the magical platform, as she herself had done, before hustling them all away towards the train.

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Vernon looked around in confusion as he stood with his wife and children on the 'normal' side of Kings Cross station.

"So where is this platform then?"

"Through there."

Petunia heaped more confusion onto his broad shoulders by pointing at an old brick pillar, partially hidden by the shadow that was formed between Platforms nine and ten.

Shelley's summer research had brought a great many interesting facts to light. Like how her family could pass through the barrier to Platform nine and three quarters if they were in contact with the person attending the school. This, along with many other things, was a part of her life that Lily Evans had never seen fit to share with her sister. Although Petunia couldn't really blame her for that, given her twelve year old self's less than supportive reaction to her younger sibling's wonderful new life with magic.

This was something that she was striving hard to make sure never happened with her niece so she assisted little Shelley in shepherding the boys safely across to stand in front of the barrier. They all took a short moment to gather their courage for what was going to be a real test of faith for them. Not that they could have doubted the existence of magic now.

Shelley's summer experiments hadn't been quite as discrete or as quiet as she had planned so the Dursleys had been treated to some spectacular displays of magic from the over excited eleven year old. She had been like the proverbial kid in the candy store trying and testing every spell, charm and potion that she could find in her mountain of books. Well after she had managed to persuade 'daddy Vernon' and 'darling aunt 'Tunie' that she wouldn't get into any trouble for doing so.

In truth, her first week after discovering that she was a witch had been spent reading up on everything to do with Arithmancy and thaumaturgical damping. Number Four Privet Drive was now so well magically insulated that she could have performed every unforgiveable curse consecutively several times over and still not be detected by the authorities. Also, her morally dubious owl ordering scheme had been a roaring success and Shelley now had the books to be able to do just that if she really wanted to.

Having seen all of this and knowing that her surrogate daughter was as brilliant at magic as she was at everything else that she tried, it was Petunia who roused the troops and stiffened their resolve now.

"Be brave my darlings."

The small family closed their eyes, linked their arms and ran full pelt at the brick wall. And, to the consternation of at least three of the quartet, passed right through it and out onto the hidden, magical Platform Nine and three quarters.

Even though she was as wonderstruck as the rest of her relatives, it was still Shelley who managed to recover first and lead them all onto the platform proper and away from any possible collisions with newly arriving muggleborn students. Although she did have something of an advantage since her intensive study of 'Hogwarts; A History' had provided her with at least some fore-knowledge of where they would be arriving.

Then she caught sight of the huge, shiny, bright scarlet steam train embossed with the legend 'Hogwarts Express' and all rational thought was lost.

This was so ... freaking ... cool.

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Newly ensconced in an empty compartment, Shelley Potter was beyond confused. Her relatives were being all weepy and emotional. Intellectually speaking Shelley understood their emotions. That is to say she understood that human emotions existed as a concept it was just that she had never really been subject to them. Other than using them (all too frequently) to get her own way that is.

"Goodbye princess." Vernon's suddenly deep and manly voice cracked slightly. "Be good."

"And if you can't be good ..." Petunia smirked at her trouble-making niece through her tears. "... be careful."

"And if anyone starts hassling you send me one of those owl things and I'll come up there and thump them for you."

Knowing that something was required of her Shelley gave a brief, but serious, reply.

"Be good ... check. Be careful ... okay. Call you if I need you to hit someone ... got it. Is that it then? Because I've got a lot of reading to do."

Shelley had thought that this might get them moving but unfortunately they were still there. Staring ... and fidgeting ... and almost crying. It was really starting to weird her out. Finally, she decided that enough was enough.

"Go."

Long used to her peculiar little 'ways' the small family squeezed themselves back out of the carriage before racing back down the platform to stare forlornly at her through the window. As the whistle blew and the express started to move off they ran to keep up, waving her off with entirely fake enthusiasm while the tears streamed down their cheeks.

Shelley, bored with all the over emotional drama, gave them an eye roll and a perfunctory and rather dismissive wave as the platform stopped and they finally disappeared from view.

While keeping her countenance in its usual stoic facade, mentally she shook her head in bewilderment at her family. She simply didn't get why they were so upset about her leaving. Did they not want her to use her 'gifts' to benefit a whole new, if hidden, section of society? It never once crossed her mind that the Dursleys loved her and would miss her. Well it did but she completely failed to understand how they could be so selfish as to deny the magical world her genius. That was just an insane idea.

Her last thought was so brilliant that, despite being alone, she vocalised it with a shake of her head.

"Nutters."

"Are they your family?"

 _"Stupefy!"_

If it weren't for her natural reactions the pale skinned, white haired girl watching from the doorway would have taken Shelley's totally reflexive stunner right in the throat. As it was the red beam of light from the twisted, dual wood wand that had somewhat miraculously appeared in her hand only just missed her to splash harmlessly on the door frame behind. Even someone as unfamiliar with spell-craft as she was could tell that this was some incredibly powerful magic by the brightly dressed witch. And the speed with which she cast was simply unbelievable. Artemis Amarok was _very_ impressed.

"Well _someone's_ clearly been practicing their spell-work."

Despite still being on high alert that somebody had managed to sneak up on her so effectively, Shelley preened a little at, what she considered to be, the praise.

"Can I ask how you managed that without being able to practice? I mean, from the size of you, I'm assuming that you're a first year like me right, so you couldn't have practiced. Or maybe you did practice ... and if you did, how did you not get in trouble?"

"Trouble? Oh, you're talking about the trace right?" The shaggy haired girl nodded at Shelley. "Well it's very simple really. All you need is a basic understanding of mathematics, physics, arithmancy and warding techniques along with a bit of number theory and Robert is your father's brother as they say."

Artemis only understood about half of that semi explanation, all of which was delivered in a fast monotone, but even with this limited frame of reference she realised that this girl with the messy, raven hair and the piercing green eyes was really, _really_ smart. And really, _really_ strange.

Her bright pink tee-shirt proclaiming her to be both a 'Little Monster' and 'Born This Way', along with the eye watering variety of greens, blues and yellows that adorned the rest of her outfit certainly attested to that. Honestly though, those chequerboard tights, clashing violently with the puke coloured tartan skirt were taking so much of her attention that she barely even noticed that the girl had started to speak again.

.

Shelley was aware of the other girl's less than circumspect inspection of her and, although amused by the fact that she seemed to have mentally wandered off, was a bit put out at having to repeat herself. She still did it, but she wasn't happy about it.

"I don't suppose you have to worry about the trace being ... Canadian? Or is it Alaskan? Your accent is right on the cusp."

"Good call. I'm technically Alaskan American but our territory does straddle the border some." She seemed to suddenly remember something. "Oh, and I'm Artemis by the way, Artemis Amarok."

"Amarok? Like the Greenland Innuit legend of the Great wolf?"

"Yeah our pa ... _people_ are originally from Greenland but we spread all over Canada and the Northern States."

"You were going to say pack, weren't you?"

Okay so Artemis was going to have to be _very_ careful around this odd, observant and scarily intelligent girl as she didn't appear to miss _anything_.

"Werewolves then?"

"We are _not_ werewolves."

She was unable to hold in her rumbling growl at the mention of werewolves but interestingly, Artemis could smell no fear on the girl at her obvious threat. No emotion at all actually. Apart from a good deal of intense interest in her, that is.

"We prefer the term 'true wolves' and we are _very_ different to those mangy damn dogs."

Seeing only some slight confusion and, once again, genuine interest from her companion at her rather heated response to this common misconception, Artemis continued much more gently. The girl seemed to have no axe to grind with her heritage and her honest, if slightly creepy and emotionless, fascination with her was beginning to pique her own interest.

"Okay so I'm happy to tell you about us but I'm still going to need your name ... for our pack records you understand."

There was the briefest of pauses before the dark haired girl almost whispered out.

"Shelley Potter."

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Shelley was not surprised by the staring and the sudden, pregnant silence that this introduction prompted, after her comprehensive reading of everything published about what the wizarding community believed about her. And there was a _lot_ of it. A disturbing amount really.

For the single event for which she was so famous, it seemed that there was a never ending stream of authors ready to put their own personal and mostly preposterous theories about it into print.

"Really?"

"Yes really. Do you want to join me for the train ride?"

Oh yes. By the Great Wolf she absolutely wanted that. Artemis almost fell into the indicated seat across from Shelley Potter.

Shelley Potter. She was sharing a compartment with _Shelley freaking Potter_. The world famous 'girl-who-lived'. And now it all made a lot more sense. The speed and power of her magic, her vivid aura, her presence. This girl must have been trained from the time she could walk and talk in how to defeat Dark wizards so it shouldn't be a surprise how good at defensive magic she was.

She was also now noticing how distractingly pretty she was. Not as pretty as a certain blonde witch that she had been corresponding with all summer (at least not to her), but still a good way up the hot-o-meter. And now the adorably cute way that she was looking at her own shuffling feet, every now and again flicking her bright, green eyes up to gauge her reaction, just like one the pack cubs did when they knew that they had been naughty, was almost making her 'aaaw' out loud. Artemis wondered if anyone had ever actually managed to say 'no' to this absolute vision of candy-sweet cuteness.

Then of course, she remembered just how fast and how _dangerous_ she looked when surprised from behind and decided that she was going to have to be careful not to do so again. Artemis was fairly sure that she could take her, but even with her wolf reactions Shelley had nearly hit her with that nasty looking red spell and she didn't really want to think about what would happen when she got older, faster and even more powerful.

It was probably best to get on a friendly basis with the 'girl-who-lived' first and fast. And at least she didn't seem to have a problem with the whole wolf heritage thing.

As the silent, slack jawed staring continued from the true wolf opposite her, Shelley realised that she wasn't going to be able to get any more information about her fascinating pedigree right now. She was, in fact, going to have to do something which she hated in order to get their conversation back on that interesting topic. Sighing in frustration Shelley knew that she was going to be required to 'share' some things about herself if she wanted to gain more knowledge about these true wolves.

"Come on then, let's have it. What do want to know?"

The other girl's reply of 'everything' caused her head to drop onto her chest and brought about another frustrated sigh.

.

Two hours later and the two young witches were much more aware of each other's histories. They discussed everything from their birthdays through their upbringings, hobbies and musical tastes to their introductions into the magical world and how much fun (or otherwise) that they had had in Diagon Alley. As they grew more and more comfortable with each other they even revealed some of their more embarrassing flaws. Artemis told of her 'mistake' with the blonde witch in the robe shop and Shelley even volunteered how she had failed miserably in her first attempt to make a zombie cat familiar.

And speaking of familiars. From inside their cages on the empty seats next to their respective pets, the snowy and eagle owls glared at each other across the small space, engaging in a silent, but fierce, battle of wills. Hedwig had thought that she had seen the back of the insufferably proud and arrogant Bulvar when she had claimed her witch in the summer but, considering how well the two witches were bonding, it seemed that she was not to be so fortunate. It looked as if she was going to have to instruct him as to who was boss again once they reached their new owlery, of which she would naturally be proclaimed 'Queen'.

All of this went un-noticed by the two girls as they continued on their journey of mutual discovery of course.

The appearance of a notepad and pen from Shelley, with the same kind of speed that her wand had earlier, when she had started to speak about her own childhood within the Royal Pack had surprised Artemis a little to be honest. However, seeing the look of rabid excitement on the other girl's face whenever she thought she might have the opportunity to learn something new put her strangely at ease.

In fact, Artemis was weirdly comfortable around the 'girl-who-lived' in a way that she wasn't even with some members of the pack, let alone some complete stranger who she had only just met. Shelley was feeling the same as well. She wasn't used to connecting with people as easily as she did with this wolf princess but the two of them seemed to balance each other out. Two incomplete personalities meshing to make a single 'normal' unit. Well not normal perhaps, but probably as close to such as either of them was likely to get.

It was slightly worrying. And completely wonderful. As they sat side by side luxuriating in one of those rarely experienced 'comfortable silences' Shelley turned to the girl that she was experimentally calling her friend in the privacy of her own mind, reached over, brushed the back of her hand with a single finger and said.

"Do you want to see the scar?"

There was a sharp intake of breath.

"I'm interested of course, but only if you want to show it to me. I mean, I get how you might not want to, what with how you got it and your parents and all."

"It's okay. I don't mind if it's you."

Another one of those bright eyed smiles flashed out from the 'girl-who-lived' and something fluttered deep in Artemis' stomach.

Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one to see as Shelley pulled several pencils from her artfully arranged hair and parted her fringe to show the livid, lightning shaped mark on her forehead.

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Draco Malfoy had been enjoying an invigorating argument with the youngest male of the blood traitor Weasley clan, rubbing the redhead's nose in his wealth and high born status when something strange happened. Ron Weasley, who could usually be relied upon to provide an excellent and entertaining debate on who was the poorest, stupidest or most evil wizard, had stopped and was staring open mouthed into the compartment that they were alongside of.

In a feat of strength, that was as unexpected as it was unbelievable, the redhead had pushed past Malfoy and his hulking bodyguards, Crabbe and Goyle, and wrenched open the door, pointing rather rudely at one of the witches within.

"Bloody hell, you're Shelley Potter!"

Bloody hell, he was right. Also surprising. Ron Weasley was hardly ever right. But as his eyes found the raven haired girl with the instantly recognisable scar on her forehead, Draco had to admit that this was one of those rare times that he actually was factually correct about something.

"I don't about _the_ but I'm certainly _a_ Shelley Potter."

"Where did you grow up? Was it in a castle like the books say? I'm Ron Weasley by the way, do you know about the Weasleys?"

Seeing the scowl that appeared on the face of Miss Potter's companion, Draco thought that this might turn out to be even more entertaining than their previous argument so he and his two goons sat down uninvited to watch the show.

"No, I live with my aunt Petunia, uncle Vernon and cousin Dudley in Surrey."

"Are they _muggles_? You live with _muggles_?"

"Yes."

"That's ... er ... cool?"

"Yes it is rather. They really are terribly accommodating about my studies and experiments."

Draco, thinking that things weren't going anywhere near badly enough, decided to stir the pot a bit.

"Hmmm, I'm sure that you had quite the education growing up with _those_ people."

Not really being someone who understood sarcasm, she replied that 'yes it was' but this answer was lost as the ginger idiot waded in to apparently stand up for her. Shelley watched with interest as the clearly derogatory interjection from the snooty, blonde boy started the two of them up arguing again, shouting at each other over her quiet reply.

With her naturally enhanced hearing, Artemis had heard it though. And now she had begun to suspect something about the cute girl with the undeniably big brain that she had begun to become quite protective of since their earlier conversation.

Despite how frighteningly intelligent she was, the fabled 'girl-who-lived' seemed utterly oblivious to irony and sarcasm. Indeed, it was like she didn't understand that they were being used against her in this situation. In fact, her whole demeanour when involved in social interaction was pretty much always decidedly odd and had become rather conspicuously forced now that there were more people here.

She didn't appear to be uncomfortable exactly, just ... detached. Almost uninterested.

In fact, the only time in the train ride that she hadn't been like that was when the two of them were alone talking about their respective lives and interests. Artemis was now beginning to believe that how Shelley was with her was vastly different to how she normally was around people.

The witch and the wolf definitely had something going on between them. Not like her and Hannah, mind you. Not romantic. More like mutually protective. More like ... _pack_.

The instant that the word entered her mind the strange fluttering in her gut solidified and a serene sense of calm descended upon her, soothing Artemis' very soul.

She could feel the beginnings of her own pack starting to form and the Alpha hidden deep inside of her roared in triumph. That roar of triumph turned to one of rage when the ginger boy turned on Shelley and started berating her for not telling the 'slimy snake', Malfoy off for something nasty he'd just said to her.

She snapped out of her reverie at that all right and her response was immediate.

With her wolf genes enhancing her speed and strength, Artemis grabbed the unfortunate and thoughtless redhead by the throat and slammed him into the glass partition six feet away in a blur of motion. The Alpha instinct had unconsciously chosen this location so that she would be in between her new pack member and the perceived threat.

The wolf really started to gain dominance and show itself now, causing her ears to lengthen, her teeth to grow into intimidatingly large fangs and her nails to sharpen into claws, pricking Weasley's neck with the wicked ends. For Ronald, himself, worse than the blood now trickling down his neck even, was the feral growl that the pissed off Alaskan wolf was now filling the compartment with. He was really scared. More scared than he had ever been in his life.

One particular black haired witch didn't seem to be scared, however, as she picked up her notepad once more and bounced over to where he was being slowly throttled.

"Oh how _exciting_! Tell me Mister Weasleby, how does it feel at the moment?"

The strangled gurgling noises that were his only and incomprehensible reply didn't appear to discourage Shelley at all. The pad went back into her skirt pocket and was replaced with a small digital camera with which she started snapping away with merry abandon.

"Oh well, we'll just have to make do with a photographic record then."

At the first bright flash, Artemis blinked and her hold loosened infinitesimally enough that Ronald was able to bring his knee up and kick her in the stomach. Not that he should have done, of course, but he was young and naive and more than a little bit stupid.

As such this rather weak and very silly attempt at escape by the redhead only succeeded in drawing the furious wolf's attention back on to him and the grip of that sharp clawed hand became even harder. The blood started to flow again and he really thought that this might be the end of his all too brief young life. The fact that Draco bloody Malfoy was sat there smirking at his imminent demise only added to the tragedy for Ron.

Luckily for him, however, the glass finally gave way behind him, under the increased pressure and he collapsed back out into the corridor in a shower of glass and splinters.

Shelley squeaked and flapped her arms around excitedly before she leaned out and captured another few pictures of the ginger boy, Weatherby or something like that, laying on his back, covered in cuts and bruises.

"That was really cool and all, but in order for this to be a truly scientific experiment we will need to do some further testing."

She turned to the three gob-smacked boys sitting open-mouthed on the seats with an insane, excited gleam in her sparkling green eyes.

"So which of you gentlemen would be kind enough to insult me next so that my esteemed colleague here can grab you by the throat and make you cry?" Shelley's nose wrinkled slightly. "And possibly urinate in your pants if the strong smell of ammonia is anything to go by."

There was a swift, mass exodus from the carriage by the aforementioned 'gentlemen' as she pulled down her trunk and bent over it to retrieve a fresh, new SD card for her camera which she only noticed when she straightened up again.

"Oh they've gone." She shrugged her shoulders, replaced the camera in her hand with her wand and waved it with a casual flick of the wrist. "Hmmm, hey-ho. _Reparo_. _Colloportus_."

The magic filled the carriage, weaving it's way in and out of the shattered carriage door, collecting up all the glass and wooden splinters before stitching them back together in the frame. The whole affair then slid shut and locked with a loud click. Perhaps in deference to the proclivities of it's caster the waves of magic from Shelley's spells were a positive rainbow as opposed to the standard dull orange and brown.

"Now then, where were we?"

Once she had picked her jaw up off of the floor and shaken out the most intrusive of her wolf features, Artemis managed to choke out in a hushed, awestruck tone.

"I _really_ want to know how you're so good at that."

"How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"

Artemis didn't know much in the way of human jokes but she knew this one and answered the question instantly and with a little, sharp toothed grin.

"Practice."

The smile that Artemis received for this answer was almost blinding in it's intensity and she knew that she would move heaven and earth to keep this extraordinary girl safe and happy.

.

"Let me show you how to get around the trace while you're here in Britain."

Shelley's explanation was undertaken with a worrying amount of detail, involving the use of a collapsible white board and several different coloured dry markers.

The equations were so fiendishly complex that Artemis was totally lost within the first two minutes but was so totally fascinated by the girl's voice that she simply didn't care whether she understood or not. If she was going to be spending a significant amount of time around Shelley then Artemis guessed that she was going to have to get used to not understanding a great deal of what was being said to her.

"And that's it really. Simple. I mean once you get over the thaumaturgical theory aspect ... ummm ... Artemis?"

Shelley tailed off as she watched the wolf lose focus, raise her head and stare at the ceiling then start to sniff the air deeply. She seemed to have caught the scent of something interesting. Artemis' nose twitched, her ears unfolded from her head again and her fangs elongated. Shelley just had time to think that she would never get tired of seeing that happen before her new lupine friend whipped around to face another pair of witches staring in through the glass door.

Seeing the huge, tooth filled grin reflected in the mirror, Shelley smiled, raised her wand, unlocked the door and made a clicking noise with her tongue as she nodded at the two shocked girls staring in at them. They appeared to be quite scared. And why not? She had just, less than subtly, set a rampaging wolf loose on them.

Artemis grinned at her again ... and she was off.

.

Hannah Abbott and her best friend Susan Bones were wandering down the train, going from carriage to carriage, peeking in at all the compartments and seeing the wonders of the Hogwarts Express.

Of course, it wasn't all wonderful.

The spectacled, green eyed girl with the vivid, lightning bolt shaped scar on her forehead was unmistakable but they could only see the back of the other girl's, white haired head. Until that head suddenly snapped up and a pair of wolf ears appeared on it out of nowhere, that is.

Hannah's elation at seeing the girl who had made her feel so weird and yet so wonderful all at the same time was quickly squashed as she recognised that look on the little wolf's face.

"Oh bloody hell, not again."

Not having learned her lesson over the summer, Hannah turned and took off running back down the corridor. Artemis grinned hugely before howling and bounded off after her, newly emerged tail wagging wildly.

Shelley Potter and Susan Bones watched the two of them race off back up the train, one with amusement, the other in fear for her friend. Not that Susan was dumb enough to want to get in between whatever the hell it was that was going on between Hannah and that strange, foreign girl that she had been writing to all summer.

"Do you want to come in and wait? I doubt if they'll be long."

Susan was uncharacteristically shy and nervous around the famous 'girl-who-lived'. The usually feisty, redheaded niece of Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, just nodded, entered and sat there quietly not saying anything and trying not to stare like some creepy stalker.

The silence had been stretching on for a good ten minutes and was just starting to get really uncomfortable when Hannah tumbled back through the door. She had turned and had just managed to lay her hand on the edge of the door to slam it shut but she was not quick enough. Not by a long way.

The white, wolf girl leapt from her position in the corridor, twisting impressively in mid air to squeeze herself through the fast closing door and enter the compartment. Still moving, Artemis gripped Hannah by the shoulders, wrapped her legs around the witch and the pair of them tumbled to the floor. Which position the Alaskan girl took advantage of by pinning her victim to the floor and lightly mouthing Hannah's neck. Again.

The difference from their entanglement in Diagon Alley was that this time Hannah was on her back and looking right into the gorgeous brown and amber eyes of her assailant.

A thoroughly freaked out Susan Bones leapt to her feet and fumbled her wand out, shakily pointing it at the white haired wolf girl, fully prepared to defend her best friend but her resolve quickly crumbled. First at the ominous growling that started up when she moved towards the pair of them, secondly at the small, happy smirk that Hannah had on her face and lastly at the very disturbing sight of Shelley Potter grinning and rummaging in the pocket of her rather garish skirt. It didn't help that this was the only time in their, albeit brief, acquaintance that she had heard the barest trace of emotion in the dull, flat, monotone voice of the 'girl-who-lived'.

"Oh goody." Shelley clapped her hands excitedly. "More experiments. Now where _did_ I put my camera?"

.

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 **Reviews are our cookies and you wouldn't want us starve now would you. Seriously though the feedback would be very helpful on this one guys so do let us know how we're doing with it, and I promise that I will try and answer all of your questions. Of which I am sure there will be many.**

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 **DtR xx.**


	4. Chapter 4

**After a slightly shorter chapter last time out you lucky people are getting another real whopper this time. I generally don't go over 6k words but this story just seems to warrant it as there's always so much to say about our quirky heroines.**

 **This time out it's Shelley and the Sorting Hat, what could** _ **possibly**_ **go wrong?**

 **A quick thank-you for all of the faves, follows and reviews so far. Especially to Balrog1788 for the excellent suggestion that you will find we have gratefully accepted below.**

 **I'm hoping for a chapter every two weeks, as I feel that this is achievable, but you all know how crap I can be when it comes to updating so don't hold your breath 'kay.**

 **Big love to the mighty Tenzo51 without whom this story wouldn't have even happened, let alone be anywhere near as good as it is.**

 **Enjoying yourselves yet? I know we are** **.**

 **I'm not JKR and I don't make any money from this. Which is a bit of a shame.**

 **DtR xx.**

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 **The Excellent Adventure of a Wolf, a Loony and a Very Bored Heroine.**

.

 **4\. You Can Leave Your Hat On.**

.

When they pulled into Hogsmeade station and she heard the rather ominous announcement that they were to leave their belongings on the train where they would be 'taken care of', Shelley Potter had a brief moment of uncharacteristic anxiety. This was mainly due to the many items stored within her trunk that, if they were discovered by an over-zealous professor, _may_ have been considered to be against the rules.

She really hoped that nobody did open it. Especially since the first thing that they would be likely to see would be her old and worn, but still well cared for, shiny and very sharp hatchet.

Shelley would be the first to admit that that would probably raise a few red flags with an educational establishment. Red flags that might persuade them to look deeper into her belongings. Past the innocuous sounding titles of her extra, non class related books, under the sleeves to their actual titles. Titles that hinted at their dark and dangerous contents. Titles that she was aware should _not_ be owned by any student at Hogwarts, let alone the so called 'champion of the light'.

And these were nowhere near the end of the list of probably proscribed items that were nestling at the bottom of her expensive, expanded trunk.

Still there was nothing to be done about it now. If she had to deal with the consequences if there was a routine search procedure in place then she would simply have to do so. Shelley was confident enough in her intellect, logic and negotiation skills that she should be able to keep most of her things. And if not then she could just get her new prospective friend and enforcer Artemis to steal them back for her.

Having a were ... sorry ... _true_ wolf on the payroll was going to be very useful indeed.

"Shall we get going then girls?"

The chaos taking place on the platform at Hogsmeade station was not something that three out of the four girls peering out of their compartment window really wanted to get involved with. Susan, Hannah and Artemis would have been quite content to stay safely on the train until things calmed down a bit before departing but their famous, raven haired travelling companion was far too excited to let them get away with this and dragged them out into the mayhem. At least it wasn't difficult to keep track of each other, the golden blonde, scarlet red, jet black and snow white heads contrasting so well that they were easy to spot even among the horde of mainly taller, black robed, students.

The four, young, differently haired witches carefully picked their way through the heaving mass of bodies. Well three of them did anyway. The resigned girls sighed heavily before moving to follow Shelley as she weaved, bounced, cooed and squealed her way towards the cool looking horseless carriages that she had spied from the train.

Unfortunately, her examination (which was making the poor threstrals _very_ nervous) was cut short as an enormous voice boomed out across the station.

"Firs' years, firs' years, over 'ere."

Hagrid's bellow reached the ears of the group, causing a strange, mewling sound to be emitted by the disappointed girl who was currently hugging one of the invisible, winged ponies and smoothing it's mane. Shelley pouted when Artemis pulled her away and from her fascinating inspection and after Susan and Hannah. As the two small, pureblood witches automatically changed direction and made their way over to the huge man, Susan risked a quick glance behind them to confirm her suspicions.

Sure enough, right there, trailing along in their wake were the little monsters that she and Hannah had shared the last half of the train ride with. Shelley Potter and Artemis Amarok. Of course, they did, at least, make what could have been a very long, dull journey a lot more interesting. _Interesting_. Yes, that was definitely the operative word, what with Shelley's enthusiasm for all things magical, her brutal intelligence and ... er ... _unusual_ demeanor and Artemis being an actual, real life, monster.

Singly they were a discomforting blend of sweet, energetic, peculiar and outright insane. She wasn't entirely sure how these two wildly different girls had become friends and even less sure that said friendship could survive contact with the zoo that was Hogwarts school. One thing that she was sure of though was that the two of them together were more than a bit of a handful. A handful that would need to be watched very carefully. Admittedly they were being awfully cute _now_ , swinging their linked hands together as they walked but the whispers and twin smirks on their faces as they returned her look were also rather worrying.

"Hagrid! How are ya, big man?"

"Alright Art'mis."

Finally letting go of Shelley's hand, the little white wolf swiftly clambered athletically up the back of the friendly half giant and gave an enthusiastic hug around as much of his shoulders as she could manage.

"You've cheered up since the Alley then?"

"Yeah. Sorry about all that Hagrid, I was just kinda tired and grumpy."

"S'alrigh' Arte' I didn' really mind. Now then, get yer little friends and get in the first boat, I promise ye won' regret it." He chivvied them along with a grin before turning to the rest of the new intake. "Right you lot follow young Art'mis 'ere to the dock and only four to a boat mind."

.

As the boats emerged from the overhanging plants and out onto the lake they came onto a sight that literally took their breath away. The castle was lit up in natural candlelight that glowed beautifully through every window and doorway visible to the approaching youngsters.

Shelley's hand found the nearest one available and gripped tightly to it.

It was a testament to just how serene and incredible the view was that Susan Bones simply returned the pressure without any of her usual snark at someone who she barely knew invading her personal space like that. She didn't quite know why she didn't let go even after they had disembarked and ascended the many stairs to the main entrance. But it was quite comforting though, so she shrugged and allowed it to continue.

"The firs' years Professor, safe an' sound."

"As ever Hagrid, thank-you for your assistance, and I'll see you inside."

The big man beamed at the praise like an enormous, over-eager puppy and gave Artemis and Shelley a not so discrete wave as he bounced off into the castle proper while the deputy headmistress turned to address them. Her speech was more informational than inspiring and Artemis had tuned her out long before the four ghosts came drifting through the walls to claim what small amount of her attention remained.

She grabbed the notice of the nearest one and started up a conversation with a fast 'hello' and introduction.

"Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service ma'am, but you can call me Nearly Headless Nick."

"Why _nearly_ headless."

The Gryffindor ghost was busy regaling the white haired young wolf with the details of his demise and subsequent quest to join the Headless Hunt when he 'felt' something penetrating his side. The suddenly annoyed spirit turned to accost his small, raven haired attacker who appeared to be scraping something off her wand and into a small plastic pot.

"Will you kindly stop poking me with your wand, young lady. It's _very_ rude."

"Sorry."

Shelley Potter looked anything but. And Minerva McGonagall chuckled quietly to herself as she surreptitiously moved a bit closer to the group to listen in as her probable, prospective young lioness set about pissing off the ghost of what was almost certain to be her new House.

"I was listening to your story earlier and I was just wondering. Are you unhappy in your ... er ... un-life? Because if you _did_ want to move on I know where I can get my hands on the parts necessary to build one of those portable particle accelerators like they used in Ghostbusters."

"What's a ghost buster?"

"You know, like the film." Sir Nicholas' blank look continued unabated. "You must have at least heard the song ... "

Since he clearly hadn't heard the song, Shelley decided to sing a bit of it for him. Just to help out like.

 _"If there's somethin' strange, in your neighbourhood._

 _Who you gonna call?"_

Inevitably, more voices joined in at this point.

 _"GHOSTBUSTERS!"_

The response from the very few muggle raised first years confident enough to join in was more shouted than sung and caused all of their ephemeral, other worldly visitors to flinch noticeably. And then they fled. Even the Bloody Baron didn't seem to want to stay in the same room as excitable little lunatic with the manic grin in her emerald, green eyes. A lunatic who, if he understood the concept correctly, wanted to 'bust' them and since this didn't sound like a very healthy option for him, he quickly retired with the other ghosts.

Other than the horrified gasps of outrage from some of the more traditional purebloods watching this scene, there was a general sense of relief from the new students at their departure. Although not from Messers Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle or Weasley as they would have, frankly, preferred the continued presence of scary ghosts to that of the much more frightening Miss Potter. Even those who hadn't met her and experienced Shelley's ... _unique_ personality, now started to move away from her.

"Come on you lot it's time for the sorting ceremony."

The relief was now unanimous as the youngsters quickly moved to follow their new deputy headmistress.

.

The pale green and pink, segmented eyes followed Hannah Abbott as she headed down to the cheering table full of yellow and black robed students. The blonde witch's robes shifted and changed colour as she walked towards them and then she was lost to Artemis' sight, swallowed up in a sea of yellow. And then it was her turn.

Artemis Amarok, last descendant of the true wolves was about to go under the Hogwarts sorting hat.

She had discussed what would happen in their sorting with the three other girls that she had shared the compartment with today. Bearing in mind that two of them were well off purebloods and the other two had read extensively from _Hogwarts; A History_ , there were no over the top stories about written tests or fighting trolls.

It was just a raggedy old hat on a three legged stool.

~Greetings Artemis Amarok, princess of the true wolves.~

Luckily Artemis was well versed enough in speaking through her thoughts, what with the telepathy that her pack used on a regular basis, that it didn't freak her out at all.

~Greetings ... er ... sorry I don't know your name.~

~Just call me Hat dear, everyone does.~

~Okay. So are we just chatting or is this like some kind of Vulcan mind meld?~

~Well I'm no Mister Spock.~

Okay so bonus points for the ancient Hogwarts artefact for knowing about Star Trek references.

~But this is not the Starship Enterprise and I have four dozen more of you to get through tonight so let's get to it shall we. You yearn for family, for pack. In which case there really is only one option for you little, magical, snow wolf.~

"Better be ... HUFFLEPUFF!"

As the hat was whipped away Artemis flashed a quick, sharp toothed smile at the green robed deputy headmistress then glanced over at Shelley and inclining her head towards the Hufflepuff table. She waited until she received the tiniest of nods and the twitch of a lip in return before bouncing off excitedly after Hannah to her new House. Her new family. Her new pack.

.

Shelley stood near the end of the ragged line of eleven year olds and stared hungrily at the Sorting Hat. Even though any colour had long since faded and, with it's ratty appearance, it was more than showing it's age, she still thought that it was one of the coolest things that she had yet seen in the magical world. Seriously, it was totally ancient and it talked and sang. _Talked and bloody sang_.

She wanted one. Like _badly_ wanted one.

Shelley thought about the odd looking and slightly crooked top hat that she had recently purchased in a run down, second hand goods stall in Kingston market. Since it was mostly a faded black, she had originally bought it to use as a more stylish (to her) alternative to the required, pointed witches hat but now ... well ... let's say other possibilities were beginning to occur to her.

Of course, she was going to make damn sure that her intelligent, talking hat was a damned sight nicer, prettier and altogether much more colourful affair than this dowdy, dull, grey one sitting on the three legged stool.

Yay! New project.

She was pretty sure that she could make her hat talk and sing like the Sorting Hat if she had access to the proper spells, enchantments and such, given her prodigious magical power and stubborn nature. And that stubbornness was going to be needed to persuade, cajole and possibly intimidate those who guarded the secrets of Hogwarts to give them up to her. It was a pretty accurate measure of just how strange the green eyed girl was that she regarded this as a fun thing to do with her down time.

.

"Shelley Potter."

The whispering and staring that her introduction inspired in the great hall was not unexpected and, having practised on the train with her new, sort of friends, Shelley managed to ignore it. Mostly. She simply gathered herself mentally, rose to her feet and, while making a gargantuan effort not to skip, strode with great purpose and not a little excitement to the centre of the stage.

Where she then proceeded to undo all of her good work, when she reached a smirking Professor McGonagall, by nearly tearing the hat out of her hands and jamming it onto her own head while sitting down with a firm thump. She ruined her already quickly diminishing (thanks to the rumour mill being fed by Messers Malfoy and Weasley) reputation for mental stability still further by immediately bellowing out in her excitement.

"Hello Mister Hat!"

Total shocked silence greeted her enthusiastic shout. If a pin were dropped at this moment it would have been easily heard. Then as the murmurs started grow after a few seconds, staff and students alike were stunned into silence again as the musty, ancient headgear roared with laughter.

~Oh my word, Miss Potter, I've been waiting a long time to meet you. And well aren't you just the special little snowflake.~

Okay, so voices in your head were normally thought of as a bad thing but since Shelley had been having an ongoing mental conversation with her wand-staff all summer (not that she was going to be revealing _that_ little snippet of information to anyone soon) she was more open to them. Also there was the fact that she was highly observant and had watched the previous students undergoing this process, carefully and with interest so, based upon their reactions, she had kind of suspected that this would happen.

She instinctively knew that she didn't have to speak out loud but decided to anyway for a couple of reasons. First was the fact that she hated it when people mangled both reason and the English language and how were they ever going to learn if they weren't corrected by those smarter than themselves, ie. her. Second, of course, was that Shelley did have a rather playfully vindictive streak in her and wanted to show the Sorting Hat who was the boss here.

"Well if you're calling me a snowflake then of course I'd be special. It's something of a tautology to call a snowflake special since they are, by definition, unique, individual and ... you know ... _special._ "

~You don't have to talk out loud dear, I can hear your thoughts just as well.~

"What you mean is that I'm embarrassing you by arguing with you in front of everyone and that I should shut up."

~Yes.~

~Oh okay, I'll stop then. Sooo. How do we do this then? _Hogwarts; A History_ was a little vague on the details.~

Shelley couldn't be one hundred percent sure but she definitely thought that she could hear some more sniggering coming from the Hat.

~Well, usually I would take a little poke around in your brain and then, based on what I found to be your strongest inclinations, place you in whichever of the Houses you were most suited for.~

~Most suited for? Isn't that just a teensy bit on the simplistic side? I mean people, even when they're only eleven, can't be summed up by a single, defining trait. I don't doubt that there are _some_ who can but they're normally much more complex than that anyway.~

'Mister Hat' would have been smiling broadly if it were physically possible for him to do so.

~You're quite right of course Miss Potter, but if I were to do a full psychological work up of every student to pass through the gates we'd be here till next week.~

~I suppose so.~

~I'm sensing a 'but'.~

At this muttered aside, the meaning of which Shelley slightly misunderstood, she lifted her rear end off of the stool and turned around to inspect it.

Much to the amusement of the Hat and the consternation of the everyone else in the great hall. All of whom, staff and students alike, were watching this, what was possibly the longest sorting in the whole history of Hogwarts school, with equal parts bemusement and fascination. That this longest sorting was of the famous 'girl-who-lived', the supposed champion of the 'light' who had defeated a dark lord while still an infant, was incredibly confusing for the poor dears. No matter what their differing political views or sensibilities, all of them were thinking the same thing.

I mean seriously, how long did it take for the hat to just damn well put her in Gryffindor and be done with it?

.

At the Hufflepuff table the new intake of Badger witches were having their own discussion as to what was going on beneath the sorting hat.

Susan Bones being a proud, pureblooded witch from an old family, seemed to rather take umbrage at the amount of time that she was taking. Shelley was clearly using the time to having some kind of philosophical debate with the Sorting Hat instead of just getting the hell on with her sorting and getting out of the bloody way to let everyone else have a go.

"What _is_ she doing?"

"Hell if I know." Artemis shrugged.

"Your friend is bloody weird."

"Yeah. Ain't she great?"

Susan looked at Artemis who was now leaning forward across the table with her chin in her hands, staring at the girl on the stool, still half obscured by the hat, with a big, goofy grin on her face. She shook her head, turning to Hannah to ask what it was precisely that she saw in the wolf only to be presented with the sight of her best friend in exactly the same position. Albeit with a different target.

The blonde witch was gazing dreamily at her American pen-pal giving off the occasional sigh and absent mindedly rubbing her finger along the still visible tooth marks on her neck.

Hannah was going to have to hit Shelley up for some of her photos of the two of them on the train so that she could send them off to Arte's pack. Alice Amarok probably wouldn't appreciate it so much but in Arte's dad Roald, she had found a most surprising fellow conspirator in the fun game of embarrassing the pack princess in front of her extended family. The post scripts that he had included in her little wolf's return letters over the latter part of the summer had been full of mischief and hysterically funny.

Of course, Hannah had had to make very sure that her mother didn't find out just who she was corresponding with but the danger of discovery made things so much more exciting for her. She realised that this meant that, in her own way, she was just as big a freak as both Shelley and Arte'.

.

Back on the stool the Hat had finally managed to get the entertaining but infuriating Miss Potter to sit down again and was now desperately attempting to get on with his job. His _only_ job in this school. A job which she was making unreasonably difficult as she wandered off on another tangent about enchanting inanimate objects to have, what she called, artificial intelligence. Had he been listening more carefully he may have tried to dissuade her from such research rather than simply trying to get back to his original purpose.

~Well the headmaster wants me to put you in Gryffindor, and while I don't appreciate the senile, old, bearded wonder interfering in my business, quite honestly you would probably do rather well there.~

~But wouldn't I do equally as well in any of the other Houses as well? If you really have been looking around in my brain you must know that I have more intelligence by far than your average wizard or witch. Or even your non average one. That would put me firmly in Ravenclaw I believe ... ~

He couldn't fault her logic as far as that went. The young Miss Potter had a startling and frightening intelligence the likes of which he had never seen before, making her mother look like a half brained cave woman. She also had more than the requisite amount of arrogance to fit in just nicely with the Ravens. As he began to voice his tentative agreement, however, she just started talking again. Straight over him. The ancient hat twitched since this had never happened to him before.

~ ... But then you would have to take into account that I have plans and ambitions for ruling the magical world that stretch way outside the borders of Britain and the cunning and purpose to see those plans through. A big old tick for Slytherin House right there. Old Sally might even be so impressed that he would come back to make me his heir.~

The Hat's twitching grew all the more agitated here. Both at the fact that the eleven year old had just called one of the founders of this venerable institution 'Old Sally' and her highly inappropriate remarks about the 'heir of Slytherin'. If she only knew, he thought, before having another peek around her mind and realising that it wasn't that she didn't know. She simply didn't care. It was at this point that he was practically begging her to shut up.

~If I put you where you want to go will you promise to stop talking.~

~Okay. Badgers please.~

Well that was fast. And not a little surprising.

~Really? Are you _sure_ Miss Potter?~

~Well we could have a nice little chat about the origins of the magic that first enchanted you and how it relates to the founders' ideals for an educational system based upon ... ~

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Thank-you Mister Hat."

There was only one person in the great hall that caught the hat's whispered follow up comment of 'and may God have mercy on your souls' and she wouldn't be telling. Minerva McGonagall was just feeling mightily relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with the girl in her House. Shelley Potter may be very smart and very talented and very powerful but she was also very weird and more than a little frightening. She had enough trouble keeping the Weasley twins in line without adding the manic Miss Potter and her ... _enthusiasms_ into the mix.

.

A shocked silence descended on the great hall (again) which Shelley only appeared to notice as the Hat was lifted from her head and she was greeted by the sight of an open mouthed McGonagall. The deputy headmistress recovered first and chased the blinking 'girl-who-lived' away towards the yellow clad table with a swift, shooing motion of her hands. This looked to be the starting gun for the 'Puffs to break into wild cheering and stomping, chanting over and over as she descended to the main floor and approached her grinning new Housemates.

"We got Potter! We got Potter! We got Potter!"

As far as she was concerned this sort of reception was totally deserved since any House in the school should be honoured to have someone of her indisputable genius and skill in it. With a grin to her friends, Shelley jumped up onto the table briefly to give a little bow and a wave to her adoring audience before dropping into the seat next to a less than impressed looking Susan Bones.

"How the bloody _hell_ did you get the Hat to put you in ... " Her hand went up in a 'stop' gesture as Shelley opened her mouth to respond before her question was even fully out. "No, you know what, on second thought, I _really_ don't want to know."

Shelley grinned madly at the redhead and told her anyway while Artemis and the traitorous Hannah sat back and laughed up a storm.

.

With Weasley going to Gryffindor and Zabini to Slytherin, the sorting was finally over and up at the teacher's table a very confused Pomona Sprout was staring at her newest intake of little badgers.

"We got Potter? _Really?_ We got _Potter_?"

"Congratulations on your new celebrity Pomona, and I mean this _most_ sincerely when I say ... the very best of British luck to you."

"Thank-you Minerva. I was rather expecting her to go to your House though, along with everyone else, I'm sure. Weren't you?"

"Well yes but, 'kay sera, sera' and all that."

She had expected that slim lipped look of disappointment and restrained anger that the deputy head of Hogwarts was so good at but instead all she could see was a sort of mild amusement and ... relief. When combined with the comment about needing the very best of luck it was _very_ suspicious. Like Minerva McGonagall knew something that she didn't. A nasty feeling started to grow in the pit of her stomach.

"Wait. What? Hang on, what's wrong with her Min'?"

There's nothing _wrong_ with her, she's just not exactly what I expected. She's ... er ... just ... a bit ... _different_ , that's all."

Professor Sprout narrowed her eyes at the uncharacteristically amused smirk on the usually stern face of her old friend and colleague.

"Different _how_?"

"You'll find out."

The fact that the always prim and proper Transfiguration Mistress all but sing-songed this response out wasn't exactly helping Pomona's sense of nervousness. Minerva wasn't really known for this kind of playful interaction unless it was a very good joke indeed. And usually one that she was playing, on the rare occasions that she did so. The nervousness grew and began to morph into something more akin to outright fear.

Still, just how bad could it be having Shelley Potter in Hufflepuff? She was the 'girl-who-lived' after all, a true heroine of the light, not a raving lunatic or some kind of sneaky, manipulative Slytherin in disguise. Surely Minerva was just trying to wind her up, but even if she wasn't, it wasn't like it mattered in the long run.

She was rightly proud of the members of her House and none of them would put up with any Slytherin style nonsense from anyone. They did, however, all seem to be gravitating to the surprising presence of one of the first years in particular. Well, surprising to everyone but the girl herself, it seemed. She was just sat there, as calm as you like, basking in the adoration of her Housemates as she expounded passionately on the subject of the theory behind making ... zombie cats?

Oh dear.

.

Once they were all guided to a collection of comfortable looking sofas in the common room and set up with steaming cups of hot chocolate, Pomona Sprout made her entrance. She viewed her House members, young and old, and once again marveled at the sight of all the fair featured, flaxen haired students.

There did seem to be a disproportionate amount of blondes in Hufflepuff.

Less generous people from the other Houses, especially Slytherin, would probably say something about blondes being sweet but dumb and, therefore, an ideal match for Hufflepuff. What they didn't know was that there was a lot more to the House of the hard working and loyal than they ever imagined.

Of course, there were a good proportion like that but there were also a decent amount of 'Puffs who were there only to take advantage of the fact that they would be constantly under-estimated and over-looked.

Ernie MacMillan, Wayne Hopkins, Justin Finch-Fletchley and Neville Longbottom were clearly feeling rather outnumbered and probably a bit nervous. All of these young men looked to her, to be in the first category of 'natural' badgers. The girls, however, as was more usual among the females of Pomona's House, looked much more of the latter variety.

Hannah Abbott, Artemis Amarok, Susan Bones, Leanne Malone, Megan Jones, Sally Smith and Sally-Anne Perks. And of course her ... Shelley Potter. All eight of them gazed around with the same kind of fake, vacant smiles that she knew was only probably masking the devious inner workings of their twisted little minds.

She launched into her standard welcome speech for the first years, feeling a sudden need to alter it slightly for the presence of the 'girl-who-lived' and her merry band of potential trouble-makers.

"Welcome to the Badger's Sett."

The portly but friendly looking Head of Hufflepuff House smiled gently at her new students.

"I know that you've heard it at the feast, but here in Hufflepuff we really _do_ take the phrase 'Your House is your family here at Hogwarts' very seriously indeed. I want you to know that you can always rely on your fellow Badgers to help you out, whether you're struggling with work or simply missing home, someone will be there to provide comfort and assistance whatever your needs ... and of course, my door is always open to you."

Her smile became a little less warm at this point, but the only ones who noticed were the same potential trouble-makers that she was aiming her next comments at.

"The other Houses will look down you on for the colour of robes, they will denigrate and demean you for simply being a member of Hufflepuff. My advice when this happens is to smile at them serenely and wish them a good day. Trust me, nothing winds the ignorant little gits up more than that."

Smirks appeared on the faces of many of the girls in yellow.

"Of course, a pack of angry badgers, no matter how young, can be a vicious thing when attacked so if things do deteriorate to the level that the curses or the fists start flying then don't be afraid to give it your all."

And now the smirks were morphing into grins that looked positively dangerous.

"This is actually a good motto to live by here. No matter what it is that you're doing, no matter what your skill level, try your best, give it your all and support your friends as they support you. Work hard, play hard and most importantly ... look after each other."

Of course it was Miss Potter who chose to comment on this.

"Did anyone else just hear; 'Be excellent to each other and ... Party on dudes!', or is it just me?"

There was a snorting giggle from both Arte' and Sally-Anne and even a trace of a smile from Justin as the muggle born/raised who recognised the reference. Shelley, herself, was the only one who recognised the flash of a glare from her Head of House through the mask of that serene, beatific smile that never seemed to leave her face. Not surprising really since she was something of an expert on masking her features and her real feelings. Or rather, the lack of them.

"You're so bad."

Pomona scowled internally as she mentally agreed with this assertion from the white haired girl with the feral grin on her face.

.

What with outnumbering the boys so badly, the first year girls' dorm was cosy to say the least. The eight beds radiated out, four on either side, from a large, central, rectangular rug, each having a small side table and their trunk at the foot of their four poster beds.

There wasn't much room.

"Oh no, this won't do."

Shelley pulled her wand and immediately started rifling through her mental library of spells that she had studied to find something to magically enlarge interior spaces. To the other girls it looked as if she had gone into a weird kind of a trance, which was a bit freaky. Soon, however, she snapped out of her meditative state, smiled widely at no-one in particular and began casting with that gorgeous looking, dual coloured wand.

Suspending her absolute belief in the muggle laws of physics and using the ancient focus, Shelley channelled her magic through it and began to 'push' at the stonework of the walls while firmly but quietly chanting.

 _"Capacious Extremis."_

The walls shimmered, stretched, wobbled a bit and then snapped back into shape.

"Bollocks!"

Artemis tried not to smile as Shelley barked out the expletive, then frowned and pouted adorably. Then all of a sudden something seemed to occur to the strange little witch and she brightened up immediately while muttering to herself.

"Of course! Milennium old castle, massive warding scheme, what we need is more ... "

The small smile that made it's way to her face as her thumb moved over the tiny knot beneath the creepy looking basilisk eye embedded in her wand was far from comforting for the other witches. There was a purple flash as Shelley span on the spot and the small wand thickened and lengthened into a magnificent, four foot, staff that fairly radiated ...

" ... POWER!"

The staff thumped down onto the rug and the incantation was spoken again and this time there was no wishy-washy wobbling as the walls of the dorm popped straight out to instantly double the size of the room. Another pulse of magic and the furniture was pushed back against the stonework. A touch too hard as it turned out, making it necessary for the green eyed goddess of magic to restore her focus to it's smaller state before casting multiple _reparos_ around the room.

This display of awesomeness resulted in Susan Bones' mouth dropping open and her giving a very impressed exclamation of surprise.

"Woah."

"Cool, huh? Right, so I'll take the bed nearest the door on this side, since it's traditionally the one that people like the least, but it doesn't bother me."

Shelley poked her wand carelessly into the knot of hair at the base of her pony tail raised her eyebrows inquiringly while continuing to take command of the group.

"Any volunteers for the other side?"

"I ... "

"Not you, you're next to me." Shelley cut the wolf off with a speed that brooked no resistance (not that there would have been after her little display of power-casting) and turned to the other girls with an expectant look.

"I suppose I could ... "

"Oh thanks Leanne, that's _very_ sweet of you."

The much practised mask was in place again as Shelley gave one of her most brilliant and engaging, but still entirely fake, smiles. She had realised quite quickly that in order to fit in to this environment she was going to have to at least pretend to be emotionally normal. Or as normal as she could manage anyway. It was in this vein that she decided to help out by moving Leanne's trunk from the centre of the room to her new bed.

The twisted wand was out again and Shelley pretended not to notice how all of them flinched.

 _"Wingardium Leviosa."_

"Wow! Erm, I mean ... no problem and ... thanks."

Doing the same for the other witches, Shelley, once again, basked in the stunned adoration of her peers at her natural talents before they started drifting off to the bathroom to prepare for bed. She stayed put, nodding in satisfaction at the displacement of her dorm-mates.

On her side of the room, there was her nearest the door, then Arte', with Hannah next and Susan taking the last bed. Across the now generous floor space it was Leanne opposite her, with Megan and the two Sallys (Anne and normal) in that order. Shelley felt, from her evening's observations of the girls, that this accurately reflected the existing friendship status of them while easily allowing for possible new relationships to form. Shelley then went off on one of her internalised, mental monologues about how clever she was and how well she was doing with all of this 'friend' business.

At which point the other young witches re-entered the room. They had all managed to finish their ablutions, change into their night wear, return and climb into their respective beds before Shelley had finished dreamily smiling at her own brilliance. The last thing that any of the new batch of Hufflepuff witches saw before sleep claimed them was their insane House-mate rummaging around in her trunk.

If they could have stayed awake longer they would have been interested, perhaps, to see Shelley's arm disappearing inside, soon to be followed by her entire head and shoulders. Not surprised any more perhaps, given the 'girl-who-lived's obvious power, skill and all around insanity, but definitely interested.

.

In a certain bedroom, in a certain street, in a certain outlying suburb of Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, a large boy in blue striped pajamas was woken by an insistent bleeping from his computer. Dudley Dursley moved with uncharacteristic and largely unseen speed to the device and opened up his desktop as fast as he could.

There was only one person that would be sending him a message at this time of night and he hurried to get into his email account so that he sould send a swift, if rather sleepy, reply if it was warranted. As he had discovered to his cost on more than one occasion, it didn't do to keep his scary little cousin waiting. And he was kind of missing her anyway.

.

 _To; bigd/dudders_at_muggle_dot_com_

 _D,_

 _I have arrived at Hogwarts and, as you can probably tell, since I am sending you this email and all, I have managed to set up my patented thaumaturgical suppressors. You can start sending homework requests and files through whenever you like._

 _I'm in Hufflepuff House where everyone is very nice, if not terribly bright, which suits my plans perfectly._

 _Your position in the magical world is being filled by a girl who can turn into a wolf at will. Seriously! Teeth, claws, ears, tail, the whole thing. It's really cool to watch and she's super nice and super strong._

 _I'm going to write to Uncle V and ask if she can spend a couple of days with us over Christmas so you can meet her then if you like._

 _Speaking of writing. I will be sending Hedwig with letters for the parentals and will include you in these for all of the 'normal' stuff. Everything else like our business transactions and my extra curricular projects will be done over our private email._

 _Well it's late (or possibly early) and I'm tired, so I'm going to try and get a couple of hours sleep before class._

 _Speak soon,_

 _Love,_

 _S._

 _sent from the email of; shellbell_number1_at_genii_dot_com_

.

Dudley smiled and rattled off a quick response, full of promises for their business stuff and good wishes for her classes, before dragging himself back off to bed to resume his broken sleep. It was not a great surprise that his dreams were filled with images of multi coloured spell-fire, sharp toothed werewolves and screaming, bloodied schoolboys.

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 **A word of thanks here to the truly awesome Silently Watches who has the list of students for every House in Harry's year on his profile. _Really_ helpful.**

 **Reviews are our cookies and you wouldn't want us starve now would you. Seriously though the feedback would be very helpful on this one guys so do let us know how we're doing with it, and I promise that I will try and answer all of your questions. Of which I am sure there will be many.**

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 **DtR xx.**


	5. Chapter 5

**So we were** _ **almost**_ **late with this. I'm going to blame Magitech for leaving an interesting review and giving me a whole new way to go with a certain Gryffindor bookworm which then caused me to re-write basically a third of this entire chapter. I must admit that it did go really well though. Good catch Magitech!**

 **These chapters don't seem to be getting any shorter, do they? Hey ho, I'm just pleased that we're managing to stick to our update schedule. Even if it is only just by the skin of our teeth. Still a win in my book.**

 **Big love to the mighty Tenzo51 without whom this story wouldn't have even happened, let alone be anywhere near as good as it is. By the way, the whole wolf cuddling thing was all Tenz's idea. The big weirdo.**

 **Enjoying yourselves yet? I know we are** **.**

 **I'm not JKR and I don't make any money from this. Which is a bit of a shame.**

 **DtR xx.**

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 **The Excellent Adventure of a Wolf, a Loony and a Very Bored Heroine.**

.

 **5\. First Class.**

.

Artemis Amarok was drifting on the cusp of wakefulness.

The princess of the true wolves had spent the night in her wolf form trying to relieve the stress of her first full day away from her family and gain the comfort that it brought her. The dreams that this exercise brought were even more welcome than the comfort that it provided. Dreams of the deep forests of her home, of running and hunting with the pack that made her twitch and yip in her sleep.

Unfortunately, this rather adorable behaviour had attracted the attention of her two immediate neighbours in the shared dorm.

Hannah Abbott had been the first one to notice the astonishingly beautiful, white furred wolf and she was entirely unable to resist the temptation to climb up on Artemis' bed and curl up with her. She snuggled up into the warmth of the lightly snoring wolf, feeling right and complete as a paw dropped across her neck, possessively pulling her further in to the embrace.

This was the scene that Shelley came upon as she headed to her own bed, having just finished setting up her equipment and emailing her cousin. She felt strange looking down upon them. Butterflies in the stomach kind of strange. Shelley wanted this. Not necessarily with either of these two, they obviously had their own thing going on what with the wolf bond and all, (it was cute that they didn't think she had noticed) but she wanted something similar. She wanted a somebody to cuddle up with.

Shelley sighed, accepting that this disturbing new development was a part of her now, the need for human (or wolfy) contact. She had undressed and got into her pajamas without taking her eyes from the slumbering Arte' and Hannah. Smiling at them she had crawled up onto the bed and curled behind the white wolf, sandwiching her between herself and Hannah, rested her head on the pillow and then had drifted off into a deep sleep.

Now that full wakefulness was fast approaching, Artemis shifted back into her human form and she noticed a couple of things. Firstly, she was very pleasantly warm and secondly, her shoulder was very unpleasantly wet. The reasons for these conditions lay snoring on either side of her.

Her blonde, witch, who she was becoming more and more convinced was her mate since neither of them seemed capable of leaving the other alone for more than a few minutes, was cuddled tightly into her front. Then there was her other playmate. The small in stature but big in personality 'girl-who-lived'. Artemis was incredibly pleased just to be on speaking terms with Shelley Potter so to have this pack bond forming with her was beyond thrilling for her. Even with her strange habits.

Speaking of which the reason for her being wet now became apparent. The small, powerful, black haired witch was spooned up behind her, head buried in her shoulder with an alarming amount drool leaking from the corner of Shelley's mouth and onto her. Artemis gave a quiet 'eeuw' and rolled her eyes but couldn't quite keep the smile off of her face either.

Carefully extricating herself from the clutches of her bed fellows, she dropped adroitly to the floor before looking up and coming to a surprised stop. There was something different about the dorm room. Other than the fact that it was more than twice it's original size that is.

Artemis made her way over to the back wall and stood goggling at all the amazing, rune inscribed items mounted on the once bare stonework of their dorm and the two gently thrumming towers in the corners radiating a faintly shimmering glow. She could actually feel the magic in the air all but disappear as she walked up to have a closer look.

Although the fifty inch, flat-screen television did certainly catch the attention, the things that actually dominated the walls were the two enormous posters that flanked it. On the left a group of cartoon school girls under the legend 'K-On', were clutching shiny rock band instruments and smiling out at the room with an adorability that could not be denied. Artemis knew the manga well but had not yet seen the anime version and smiled at the fact that they were advocating their first big hit, 'Fuwa Fuwa Time'. To the TV's right it was no less adorable and no less strange.

The ethereal looking girl with the neon blue twin tails and the short blue dress with it's tie was clearly singing into a headset, caught in mid-dance move was Japanese. That much was obvious from the look of her as well as from the writing above her raised and outstetched arms, 'Sapporo 2011'. Artemis had never really been a comic book or cartoon kind of a girl as she was more of a hardcore manga freak (total otaku) but this amazing young woman on the poster had a presence that was undeniable. Just like Shelley Potter's own aura, it drew you in. Made you feel special.

"That's Hatsune Miku. She's a vocaloid."

Shelley's calm, flat voice would have made her jump if Artemis hadn't been quite so used to the girl being able to sneak up on her by now.

"A what now?"

"A vocaloid, it's a singing voice synthesiser. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcalona, and wasn't actually ... you know what, why don't I just show you."

After fiddling around with her laptop computer and some leads, Shelley took her position on the dance mat and struck a pose. The first strains of 'Kocchi Muite Baby' started and the insane genius in the pink, Hello Kitty pajamas took off into a wild and enthusiastic (if not strictly accurate) mirror of the blue haired vocaloid now gracing the TV screen.

It wasn't really her kind of music but it was a very impressive piece of technology. And wildly hilarious as Shelley started singing along with the infectious J-pop tune while she danced. In Japanese. Which would have been surprising to Artemis yesterday but really wasn't so much now. That girl was crazy brilliant.

Artemis pulled out her phone from her trunk, stepped inside the radius of Shelley's awesome magic suppressors and managed to capture the last few seconds of her friend's dance with it. She was intending to send the video to her grandma to show her that she was following the old Alpha's instructions to make good connections among the wizarding world. She was just powering it down again when Shelley noticed what she was doing.

"Ooh, is that the i-phone 4. Can I see it?"

"Sure. It's not like I can get it to work here. Well, not to make calls anyway."

She gave a pointed look at all of Shelley's electronic gear, hoping for an, at least vaguely understandable explanation, but being disappointed as the other girl didn't seem to notice her silent question.

"Well no but if we link it into my laptop you should be able to email from it ... ooh, and if we can get hold of a web cam I can set you up on Skype. Would you like that?"

"What's it going to cost me?"

Artemis had learned very early on in her life that everything had a price and her new friend was far too smart not to know this as well.

"Just a little dance."

Okay so this particular price was almost not worth paying.

"Oh _hell_ no. I don't dance."

" _Please_ Arte'. I'll even let you choose the music."

The big eyed, pouting and pleading from the 'lunatic-who-lived' had their usual effect on her and the white wolf capitulated to her mad friend, selected a song that she could tolerate and shuffled her way out onto the dance mat.

By this point all of her dorm mates were now wide awake and staring with ill disguised hunger and anticipation at the two girls, especially the one nearest to them. Shelley winked at the giggling Sally-Anne Perks and invited her up to join them with a nod of her head which actually pleased Artemis since there was now somebody else to share in the attention. And the humiliation.

A humiliation that now looked to be in front of a much larger audience as girls from every dorm and year began to push their way into the first year's room attracted by the singing, strange noises and laughter. As the music started some forty, wide eyed witches were crowded in together watching the three small firsties give a reasonably talented, sweet and very funny rendition of the Jackson Five in all of their seventies, Motown glory.

.

 _Oh, A B C_

 _It's easy as, 1 2 3_

 _As simple as, do re mi_

 _A B C, 1 2 3_

 _Baby, you and me girl_

 _A B C it's easy,_

 _It's like counting up to 3_

 _Sing a simple melody_

 _That's how easy love can be_

 _That's how easy love can be_

 _Sing a simple melody_

 _1 2 3 You and me._

.

There was a brief moment of silence before whooping, shouting and wild applause broke out and was loud enough that it even managed to wake up the boys in their, far removed, dorms. Shelley, Artemis and Sally-Anne received the applause with small and suddenly shy smiles, shuffling together to take a little bow after their impromptu performance. They were hit with many questions and requests but before any of these could be answered or acted upon the three female Hufflepuff prefects bustled in and chivvied everyone out, telling them to get themselves ready for breakfast and classes.

.

The entirety of the female population of Hufflepuff House bounced into the great hall in a display of enthusiasm for their first day that grated mightily, and somewhat unreasonably, on the other students. Of course, those other students hadn't had their own personal 'dance off' performed for them this morning by their brilliant and slightly unruly, muggle raised, first years.

The House of the Badgers seating choices reflected just how well thought of their new younger members were. There was no delineation along age lines this morning other than the fact that the firsties were all clumped together in the middle of the table, surrounded by excited witches of all ages. They would have been quite difficult to spot among their taller compatriots had it not been for a certain piece of attire being worn by one of them.

Shelley was sporting her newly decorated, top hat which poked above the crowd, it's bright yellow, sunflower waving enthusiastically on it's charmed compression spring. Below it was her favourite chequerboard pattern in black and yellow with a red number one next to the proudly displayed Hufflepuff crest and a joker card sticking out of the rouched, purple hat band.

It was utterly nuts and Shelley loved it. As did her Housemates it seemed. Indeed, her strange headgear was almost as big a hit among the Badgers as her technologically enhanced dorm room. Once again Shelley Potter was the centre of attention at Hogwarts. Deservedly so in her, not so humble, opinion.

.

Albus Dumbledore sat in his throne struggling to keep his habitual, twinkly eyed smile on his face. The reason for his displeasure was sitting almost directly in front of him with the rest of her House, smiling ever so slightly at the boisterous antics of her new friends, who all appeared to be competing for who could manage to please her the most. It was a problem. A very big problem.

Shelley Potter was not supposed to be like this. She was supposed to have come to Hogwarts as a poor, down-trodden, wastrel ready to grab tightly onto the affection and mentorship that he would offer with both hands and never let go. He had been very careful to keep the 'girl-who-lived' away from the wizarding world and in an environment that would stunt her physical, intellectual and emotional growth. It was unfortunate for the girl to have to suffer through these indignities but necessary for the greater good. She had a destiny to fulfill. A destiny that meant she would have to be so unhappy and disenfranchised that she would give away her very life, without hesitation or demur, for those who had taken the time to befriend her.

That she actually seemed to have been raised to be some kind of prodigy in the muggle world with the charisma of a pop star was not going to be conducive to his future plans. This had been painfully obvious to Albus from virtually the first moment that she had stepped into the great hall last night. Intelligence was a far more difficult thing to hide than stupidity and the fact that she didn't even try to conceal her, admittedly, brilliant mind was more than a little concerning.

Clever, arrogant, cold, and already gathering a most devoted little gang of admirers she was reminding him more of Tom Riddle than her sainted parents, a most disturbing line of thought. Along with her managing to somehow circumvent his instructions for the hat to put her in Gryffindor where he could choose and control the friends she made, it was agitating Headmaster no end. He calmed himself with the thought that at least she hadn't gone to Slytherin so he didn't have to worry too much about her going 'dark'.

The old man snorted into his porridge. Yeah right, The Dark Lady of Hufflepuff. That was a good one.

.

"What's up with old Gandalf over there? He keeps staring at me like I've shit in his shoe or something."

Professor Sprout had just wandered close enough to be able to hear her most famous student's coarse and irreverent (if funny and true) statement about the Headmaster and the resulting shocked giggles. Not even a day and she was already a terrible influence on her House. Or a good one depending on your point of view. Given that Pomona Sprout was used to being able to see both sides of an argument she decided to let that one slide. There was something about her that she couldn't ignore though.

"Why are you not wearing your uniform Miss Potter?"

"But I am Professor. Everything I am wearing is standard issue Hogwarts uniform, purchased from Madame Malkin's in Diagon Alley."

"The uniform is grey Miss Potter, not pink ... or green ... or blue ... or any of those other unidentifiable colours that seem to have found themselves mixed up in there."

"Yeah, I think there must have been an accident with the laundry."

"An ... _accident_."

"Well it was probably quite a big accident."

"Did it involve a runaway cement mixer and a trip to the paint factory?"

"I don't _think_ so." The finger was up and a cute, thoughtful expression adorned Shelley's face. "But the laundry is Aunt 'Tunie's domain and ... well ... I'm not allowed to even help with it any more after the incident with Gerald."

"I know that I'm going to regret this, Miss Potter, but who is Gerald?"

"Gerald is ... _was_ ... my cousin's hamster."

"Oh?" Realisation dawned. "Aah."

"Yeah, so no more laundry duty for Shelley."

She sighed dramatically and gave her patented 'sad face number twelve', making all of the girls who were listening in with rapt attention sigh along with her. I mean they all knew and had seen for themselves what a clever, powerful and scary little witch she really was but they seemed powerless before her onslaught of cuteness. Even Professor Sprout blinked back a tear or two before she remembered who she was talking to and that devious little smirk of Minerva's at the sorting ceremony the previous night.

"Well we can't do anything about it today I suppose but you will at least get rid of the hat."

"You don't like my hat?"

"It's ... "

Pomona Sprout was suddenly surrounded by her small Badgers all pouting at her and giving disappointed cries 'not the hat' and 'we love the hat', gaining the attention of the other teachers and making her look very bad.

"It's very lovely Miss Potter but, once again, it's not really regulation is it?"

"I know it's not really pointy but _is_ black. Well _mostly_ black anyway."

Her whole House was staring at her now with those huge wet puppy eyes that there was simply no defense for.

"Fine. Keep the bloody hat then."

"You're the best teacher ever professor Sprout."

She shook her head ruefully as she continued down the table to distribute the rest of the time-tables, receiving other such tributes from her students and thinking what a manipulative little cow one Shelley Potter was. Clever and very entertaining to be sure but still a manipulative little cow of course.

She smiled again as she heard the groan from those of her first years who had older relatives already at Hogwarts as they spied the subject that occupied very first slot on their timetables. Serves the little monsters right she thought.

.

The first lesson of the first day for the new intake of Hufflepuff House was the one lesson that most students dreaded. Potions. The reason for their dread was currently seated behind his desk glowering at all the eleven year old imbeciles and dunderheads who were piling into his dungeon domain and making altogether far too much noise for his liking.

Severus Snape was already in a bad mood due to having been kept up half the night by the Headmaster, being forced to listen to the old fool's ranting and raving about the damned Potter brat. He, of course, wasn't surprised that the clearly evil and insane spawn of that ignorant, up himself tosser James bloody Potter had managed to muck up a decade of carefully laid plans but it didn't make him any more willing to listen to Albus whining about it. What with the bearded wonder's ranting and his own, less than calming thoughts about the re-emergence into their lives of the 'girl-who-lived', sleep had been very hard to come by.

This made the Hogwart's Potions Master very grouchy this morning. Even more so than he normally was. Catching sight of the ridiculously attired Hufflepuff sweeping into his lair surrounded by her tiny toadies and hangers on, with a supercilious look on her smirking face didn't exactly improve his mood.

"Sit down and shut up."

He bad temperedly ground his way through the roll call in his most gravely and intimidating voice until he reached ...

"Ahhh, Potter. Our new _celebrity_."

The sneer was something that he had practised, honed and perfected through ten years of attempting to teach morons how not to blow themselves (or him) up in his class and he now put all of his considerable venom into it as he locked eyes with ... _her_. He almost immediately wished that he hadn't.

Leglimancy was an art form that relied, primarily, on order and the 'girl-who-lived's mind was anything but ordered. Looking into her thoughts was like being inside of a particularly vigorous pinball machine being played by an expert. A really self centred, pinball machine, that is, as she didn't appear to have much in the way of feelings about anything or anyone but herself. And her massive intelligence was just awe inspiring in both it's scale and it's complexity. The gears in her brain didn't stop moving for even a fraction of a second.

Whatever. It didn't matter how intelligent she was, or how pretty, or how she had inherited her mother's eyes, Severus just couldn't get past the fact that she was James Potter's daughter and not his. Her crazy, wild, black hair and that air of total arrogance that she sported as proudly as she did her insane hat made this more than clear and he would have his revenge on the hated Potter by humiliating his daughter in front of her peers at every opportunity.

He set to this task with a will.

"There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few … who possess, the predisposition … I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death. Then again, maybe some of you have come to Hogwarts in possession of abilities so formidable that you feel confident enough to not pay attention!"

His eyes flicked back to his target.

"Potter!" Snape suddenly barked out. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

"Hmm, let me see." The dour professor had a brief and unwelcome moment of deja vu as the dratted girl put a finger to her chin ... just like Lily used to. "Powdered root of asphodel and infusion of wormwood, if combined correctly would be two of the major components in the Draught of Living Death, Master Snape."

"What did you just call me?"

"Master Snape. Am I incorrect in thinking that you are a certified Potions Master then professor?"

"You are not _in_ correct."

"Well then it would be the height of bad manners to call you anything other than that would it not Master Snape?"

His eye twitched at both her good manners and her reasoning. He really wanted to hate her. Hate her and take a hundred points from Hufflepuff. Unfortunately, her knowledge of his subject and Merlin damned respectful attitude was making that impossible. For now. He decided to give it up as a bad job, employ some well practised needling techniques and try again later.

"The instructions for today's potion are on the board. Get on with your work."

Artemis decided that being paired with Shelley for this class was a _really_ good idea as her friend conjured up some floating, inert, bluebell flames for extra light and carefully copied the instructions into a notebook. Then she saw her looking at the knives that were provided by the school and frowning deeply at the dull, barely sharp, implements. She knew that it wouldn't be long before Shelley figured out what to do about it.

And sure enough, with a quick 'ooh I know' she reached underneath her robes and pulled out her prized possession. The hatchet glittered menacingly in the extra light of her conjured lamps as Shelley caressed it gently, cooing at the hand axe and asking it if it was alright for her to use it today. Apparently, it was as she then started to douse both it and their workstation with disinfectant before perusing the instructions for their brew again.

While she did this Artemis gathered the ingredients for the potion from store room and laid them out for her partner to chop in the prescribed manner. Which task she, of course, accomplished with a great amount of skill, flair and panache.

"Cool."

It was pretty much the only word that Artemis could think of to describe what she was seeing. Almost as much fun as this was watching the teacher that Shelley had been so courteous and polite to getting more and more red every time he glanced at their work station with it's perfectly simmering cauldron.

She concluded that he was probably a former Death Eater or something and simply followed Shelley's example, ignoring his attempts to make them bite at him with his barbed comments. The horrible man's spectacularly purple face when they handed in a perfect potion, complete with a spare vial in case of accidents, at the end of their time made up for having to bite her tongue at his behaviour.

Professor Sprout was right. Smiling serenely and thanking him for such a brilliant and constructive lesson had left the sour faced dungeon bat spluttering in apoplectic rage. It was brilliant. Apparently Shelley had thought so too.

"Well that was fun, what's next?"

"Seriously? You thought that lesson was _fun_?"

Susan Bones couldn't believe that anyone but a drooling lunatic would think that that piss poor excuse for a Potions class was ... oh, hang on. Drooling lunatic, Shelley Potter. She got it now.

"Oh yes."

"There's something really _wrong_ with you Potter."

The 'girl-who-lived' nodded happily at her class-mate's assertion, causing the sunflower on her top hat bob around madly and the other 'Puffs to giggle.

.

The next class was Herbology with their Head of House and the Gryffindors. One of whom was turning out to be very, _very_ annoying. Shelley had hoped to find, well not an intellectual equal (she was a genius after all), but at least someone who she could hold a reasonable conversation with about the finer points of the nature of magic. After ten minutes she realised that this wasn't going to happen and her hopes were cruelly dashed as the Granger girl displayed a reliance on the infallibility of the written word that every true scientist knew was very silly indeed.

"Ooh. ooh, I know professor. Pick me, pick me."

The bushy haired girl with the buck teeth that Shelley had met briefly in Flourish and Blotts on her shopping trip over the summer looked to be well on her way to straining something in her eagerness to answer the question about the Devil's Snare that they were working with today. As she had suspected would be the case, the answer was straight out of the year one text book, far too simplistic and left a lot to be desired. Shelley, being the kind of person that she was, couldn't just let such a half-arsed explanation go and decided to step in to correct it.

"Hmmm. That can't be right though can it."

"What do you mean 'can't be right'? Of course it's right, I read it in _A Beginner's Guide to Magical Plants._ It's in the book and I've read it from cover to cover so I actually _know_ what I'm talking about."

Shelley hadn't originally gone into her lessons today with the intention to upset people or make any enemies but there was something about that smug smile on Granger's face that was just making her _itch_ to slap it off. Verbally that is. Well, at least verbally for now. She would hold off on physically till later.

"What I mean is that they can't be completely subdued by just being exposed to light."

"They _are._ I read it in the book so it must be ... "

"You may have read it in your _beginner's_ guide, Miss Granger but what you are failing to take into account is the evidence that is being presented to you now that you are having actual, physical, interaction with these plants."

"What evidence, I don't see any evid ... "

"Do you agree that we are in an outdoor greenhouse?"

"Yes."

"And the plants are in the _same_ outdoor greenhouse."

"Yes."

"And it is ... " She made rather an ostentatious show of consulting her Minnie Mouse watch strapped to her left wrist. " ... a quarter to twelve in the morning."

"If you say so."

"And the sun is shining quite strongly today."

Hermione Granger opened her mouth to reply before following the actions of all of the other first years to look up into the bright, Scottish afternoon. Her finger came up to point at the girl with the blank, slightly quizzical look on her expressionless face and the open mouth worked a couple of times before slamming shut.

"So given the evidence presented of the sunlight, refracted through glass to give an impressive amount of light and the fact that these plants are still managing to move around quite freely ... " The merest trace of a smirk caught at her lips a she continued. "... we can hypothesize that, in fact, not _all_ types of light are effective in combatting Devil's snare."

"You ... I ... you ... "

"Perhaps you should do some further reading to see if this 'discovery' had been made previously, Miss Granger. You know, _before_ you go around preaching your half truths from your flawed and semi-competent research, that is."

"Ooh someone call the nurse, 'cos she just got _burned_."

The giggling duo of Sally-Anne and Artemis high fived each other at the little wolf's comment and their amusement soon spread to everyone who was not robed in red. Hermione Granger meanwhile was being dragged away by a very anxious looking red haired boy who was desperately whispering in her ear to 'please stop annoying the mad witch and her scary wolf'.

.

Lunch was once more presided over by the still genial seeming (but only just) presence of the Headmaster who had to drag his attention from the Hufflepuff table more than once. It would not do for him to lose his twinkly eyed, benevolent aspect that he had tried so hard to cultivate over the years and observing the interactions of the young Badgers too closely was the quickest way for that to happen.

After which it was off to another class, Charms this time, and another different pairing brought Hannah Abbott into the now highly prized position of being Shelley's partner of the moment.

It didn't stop her sneaking glances at Artemis every couple of minutes though.

When their half-goblin professor, Flitwick, fell off of his book pile upon simply reading out the name of Shelley Potter it took all of her pureblood training not to laugh at him.

Their first class with the Slytherins was going very well, despite all the horror stories that they had heard from their older siblings and Housemates. This may have had something to do with the three boys who managed to position themselves as far away from her and Shelley as possible and kept whispering 'shut up you fool' at anyone who tried to wind her up. Although the magical prowess of the gaudily hatted girl with the big brain was probably just as effective at keeping them silent and watchful.

Filius Flitwick was another one that was pleasantly surprised by the, almost cordial, atmosphere as he had expected this class to be something of a battleground. Anywhere you got the children of Death Eaters and the girl who had defeated their dark master together was bound to be fraught with simmering tension and possibly violence. But no. There was nothing other than a little understandable nervousness.

That this was mainly on the part of who he had thought would be the aggressors though which confused him somewhat. Well up until the point that he saw her actually perform some magic that is. The girl was, quite simply, brilliant.

Shelley Potter had already progressed from the 'lumos' charm and was currently occupied in giving her giggling study partner a bit of a make-over. Third year colouring and fixing charms were pouring from her wand in a steady stream, painting Miss Abbott's nails and putting hot pink streaks in her hair. The wand itself, intrigued him as well once he caught sight of that miniature basilisk eye focus.

"My word Miss Potter that is some really very good work. I wonder if I might see that rather remarkable wand of yours?"

The short professor's eyes widened as the famous young Badger handed her wand to him for inspection. He was skilled enough in wand-lore to recognise a wand-staff when he saw one and knew that the people who used them were, generally, not those that you wanted to upset or get angry. It also took a serious amount of power to be able to use one of these things to any great effect.

The fact that Shelley Potter could do so was pretty impressive. And also pretty disturbing. Perhaps it was time for him to reach out to his relatives at Gringotts and find out what else she could do before he accepted the Headmaster's mission of trying to stunt the girl's rate of learning and separating her fro her friends. He was quite new to all of this 'Order of the Phoenix' business' so he would be taking things very slowly and very carefully.

"Very nice. I'm sure that you will do great things together."

Whatever was going on between the 'girl-who-lived' and Albus, Filius decided that he would need a lot more information before he stuck his neck on the line. Plus he rather liked her no nonsense attitude and exuberant clothing choices, despite his more staid and scholarly Ravenclaw ways.

.

In Shelley's considered opinion it had been a good day. Certainly there were things that could be improved upon here and there, the teaching standard in Potions for instance, but generally speaking she felt that the educational standards of Hogwarts were ... adequate. Well adequate for most people, she was sure that she would have learned everything availlable here by the end of her third year. Fourth at the latest.

This gave her an interesting dilemma.

How would she fill her time in order to not become insanely bored?

There were a few options that she was considering but her favoured one involved the thing that she had never really had the time or inclination for previously. Friends. It was in this spirit that she had decided to educate her new dorm-mates and potential friends in the art of subversion and, what she liked to call, marauding.

She set up the girls in a circle around the TV and handed out popcorn and a strange, fizzy, orange coloured, muggle drink before addressing them, using her carefully selected DVD as a baton.

"Tonight I'm going to show you all an extremely motivational film that I believe we should use as a blueprint for our time here at school. It certainly inspired me and I just know that it will do the same for you."

"What's it called?"

"Saint Trinians."

The mouthful of Irn Bru that Sally-Anne had been in the middle of drinking was violently expelled as the muggleborn witch failed to keep her shock bottled up and sprayed the orange liquid all over the unlucky Susan Bones.

"Really?"

"Sorry Sue, went down the wrong way."

One hour and forty one minutes later six shocked looking witches and a grinning Sally-Anne Perks and Artemis Amarok looked over at their unofficial dorm leader. Her message with this movie selection had been clear. No more were the House of the Badgers going to be the poor relations of Hogwarts. It was time for the yellow robed House to stand proud just like those wild and entertaining girls on the screen. They were going to rule this school.

"We are Hufflepuff."

Susan turned to her best and oldest friend who had spoken and nodded back at her with a determined look on her face to echo the sentiment.

"We are Hufflepuff."

Artemis leaned forward and gripped Hannah's hand tightly, growling out her own.

"We are Hufflepuff."

A thumping started as the young witches, gaining in confidence began to pound their feet on the floor, setting up a beat that Shelley couldn't resist taking advantage of.

 _"We are the best, so screw the rest_

 _We do as we damn well please_

 _We are the toughs_

 _The Hufflepuffs_

 _Defenders of anarchy._

 _HUFFLEPUFFS!"_

The pink haired young woman, hidden at the back of the room under a disillusionment charm, had her fist jammed into her mouth to prevent the escape of the laughter that had been bubbling up all night. Her punishment from her Head of House for her latest ... er ... indiscretion had turned out to be rather a fun one. Okay so sitting quietly and observing wasn't precisely her idea of a good time but it still beat scrubbing floors or polishing trophies for Filch.

And honestly she was a slightly curious herself as to what the new first years were up to.

It was a lot as it turned out. These girls were scary. Once they had decided on the fact that they were going to go all St. Trinian's on the school then they had set to their planning with a will. While some of their suggestions were fairly innocuous, others had that touch of devious devilry that would certainly not be out of place at the fictional English girl's school itself. And it would give those uppity, pureblood wankers a good, old fashioned, poke in the eye at the same time.

Bloody hell she was actually sad that it was her last year. Hufflepuff House, despite their extreme Badger pride, had never had much to cheer about but this year she sensed that something was about to change. At least she was going to get to the opportunity to see her tiny Housemates sow the seeds of chaos and mayhem that they would surely build upon later. The devious little minxes.

It was at this point that the chief devious minx and ringleader of the Hufflepuff Hooligans displayed her rumoured prodigious magical talent by staring right exactly at where she was sitting.

"Excuse me. Are you going to sit there all night or are you going to come and join us?"

Oh bollocks.

Nymphadora (don't call me Nymphadora) Tonks was starting to think that a week of detentions with Filch might have been the better option.

.

In the small village of Ottery St. Catchpole in a house that looked like the chess piece after which it was named, a petite, willowy girl with dirty blonde hair suddenly stopped talking.

Her father and the owner of 'The Rook' was rather taken aback since he couldn't remember another time when she had willingly stopped her meandering monologues about all of the invisible and possibly imaginary creatures that she saw. That she had done so now was, therefore, something of a shock. Although a much larger shock was had when her eyes snapped open again and she punched the air shouting.

" _HUFFLEPUFFS!_ "

"Are you alright there, Moonbeam?"

"Oh yes thank-you daddy, I was just having a vision about ... ummm ... "

Okay now she was stuck. Luna couldn't exactly say what her vision was about without alerting her father, who was surprisingly perceptive sometimes, to the fact of her future coven mates. Luckily, however, her father was experiencing one his less perceptive moods tonight and helped her out himself.

"Hufflepuffs?"

"Exactly daddy, Hufflepuffs." She used the well worn tactic of smiling brightly at her father before following up with. "You're so clever."

"Why thank-you darling."

While flashing him another of her most distracting smiles, Luna Lovegood started to feel quite downcast as, although it was lovely to connect with Shelley and Artemis in this way it always got her to thinking. Thinking how it was going to be such a long, boring year stuck here at home while they were so far away, enjoying themselves and bonding at Hogwarts.

Unless.

Ooh now that _was_ a good idea. And daddy seemed to be in a nice and receptive mood tonight so she was sure that she could sell it to him if she employed just the right tactics. Mentally squaring her shoulders, Luna prepared for battle by cocking her head smiling at the old man like her mum had done whenever she wanted something.

"Daddy?"

"Yes Moonbeam?"

"I've been thinking."

"Have you dear, well do try not to strain yourself too badly."

Luna had to work hard to keep her happy-go-lucky smile active after _that_ little barb.

"What would you think of including some Quidditch match reports in 'The Quibbler'? It might increase our circulation so that we can appraise more people of the real issues in our society like the disappearance of Stubby Boardman and the declining Snorcack population."

"But aren't match reports dreadfully dull Moonbeam?"

"School match reports aren't, they're always exciting games. We could go to Ilvermorny and Beaubaxtons, not Durmstrang obviously ... "

"Obviously."

" ... and ... er ... Hogwarts, of course."

Xenophilius Lovegood looked at his daughter closely. He knew full well that she was employing his late wife's 'cute and adorable' terror tactics to get her own way but had decided to wait until she got to the point first before his inevitable caving in to her wishes occurred. And now it was clear. Something or some- _one_ at Hogwarts had piqued her interest and she wanted to visit.

"Alright darling girl, we can give it a try if you really think it's a good idea."

"Yay! ... I mean ... absolutely Mister Editor, I truly believe that this will turn out to be a great move for 'The Quibbler' ... and for us."

He watched his daughter bounce happily off up the stairs singing a little song, something about Hufflepuffs defending a harpy? He didn't really mind that she had attempted to manipulate him into doing what she wanted. It reminded him of his darling, late wife, Pandora. And quite honestly it _was_ a pretty good idea. If it paid off it would certainly ease their financial worries. Plus, he could never say 'no' to his little girl. Never had been able to, never would be able to.

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 **I do try not to use too many song lyrics in my fics but this chapter was just begging for them.**

 **Reviews are our cookies and you wouldn't want us starve now would you. Seriously though the feedback would be very helpful on this one guys so do let us know how we're doing with it, and I promise that I will try and answer all of your questions. Of which I am sure there will be many.**

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 **DtR xx.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A bit late due to a few unexpected mental health issues on my part but on the plus side the next chapter is already half written and should be up within the week.**

 **Big love to the mighty Tenzo51 without whom this story wouldn't have even happened, let alone be anywhere near as good as it is.**

 **Enjoying yourselves yet? I know we are** **.**

 **I'm not JKR and I don't make any money from this. Which is a bit of a shame.**

 **DtR xx.**

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 **The Excellent Adventure of a Wolf, a Loony and a Very Bored Heroine.**

.

 **6\. Defensive and Offensive Magic.**

.

The girls of Hufflepuff House were one again awakened, for the second morning running, with a raucous alarm call from the first year dormitory.

Once the extremely loud bass thump, courtesy of the House of Pain, had started up it was simply impossible for any of them to remain asleep. It even got through the silencing charms that some of the upper years had cast around their beds following yesterdays rude wake-up call. However grumpy the older girls were, the younger years were just as equally amused and excited. Indeed, more than a few of the second years had set their alarms early in the hope that they would be treated to exactly this kind of early morning entertainment.

Tonks sleepily walked into the first year dorm to be confronted by fifteen young witches all 'Jumping Around' and 'getting up, getting up to get down', only to turn around and get the bloody hell out of there before she was dragged into the madness. The Hufflepuff metamorphmagus was thinking that she really needed to invest in some earmuffs before long. And possibly a blindfold as well.

Once her morning dance calisthenics had been completed and she had emerged from the bathroom all freshly scrubbed and attired in her eye-watering 'uniform', Shelley took stock of her new room-mates. The more conscientious among them were already robed and digging out their supplies for the day's lessons while others were sitting cross legged in front of the T.V. watching an episode of K-On and giggling. The one thing that they all had in common was the smiles that made Shelley's heart feel unusually warm and tingly.

Well, all except one of them.

A gloomy looking Artemis was staring so forlornly at her i-pod that Shelley couldn't help offering her assistance. This having friends business was rather annoying sometimes. She sighed and approached her anyway gesturing to the small, muggle, music player in her hands.

"I can make that work you know."

"You can?"

"Sure." Shelley shrugged at the hopeful looking wolf. "It's a fairly simple piece of magic, I just need a set of rune scribers and about twenty minutes."

"I'll be right back."

She would swear that she actually felt the displacement of the air as a white blur shot out of the room and returned less than a minute later with Nymphadora Tonks' rune kit in her hand and a big, pouty expression on her face. Unable to resist, Shelley held out a hand to receive the tool set and got to work on her new friend's much prized music player.

Honestly, she would have done a great deal more for the girl than that. Her usefulness as a powerful enforcer and someone whose personality attracted potential friends and allies like flies made her extremely valuable to her, so taking half an hour before breakfast to make her happy seemed like a good use of her time. Following this theme, Shelley decided to add in a few improvements while she was at it, like voice activated commands and a shared speaker facility.

The absolute joy evident on Arte's face as she played with her newly uprated i-pod over her pancakes, glancing up every few minutes to give her a beaming smile, was almost reward enough. It troubled Shelley that after only two days in the infectious little wolf's company she was thinking like this. It was very unlike her.

.

Having already suffered through a day of, what were for her, remedial classes taught by half-wits and oddballs it was no great surprise to Shelley that a ghost was teaching them History of Magic. Although it quickly became apparent that this subject should really be called 'history of uppity, violent goblins and the stupid wizards who upset them'. To most it was boring in the extreme, but not to her.

Unlike almost everyone else in the dusty classroom, however, Shelley was not working on her homework or taking a surreptitious forty winks. She found this class absolutely riveting, very informative and extremely useful.

Gringotts Bank had a monopoly on the banking business in wizarding Britain and possibly the world, although she would have to research that more later on to get a definitive answer. It was only common sense, therefore, that she should learn all that she could about the creatures that kept the financial wealth of the country so tightly in their grasp.

So she paid very close attention and took a veritable mountain of notes, her muggle ball point pen flying across the paper (she still wasn't convinced of the necessity of using quill and parchment for anything but actual assignments) as she scribbled down every single detail. It didn't really matter whether or not they were relevant, she could sort that out later tonight when she organised her notes on her laptop.

.

Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was supposed to be the most important and high profile class in the school's curriculum. And yet. It was, without a doubt, the worst class they had suffered through yet.

Their so called 'professor' had spent an hour and a half muttering, stuttering and stumbling through the introductory material while managing to somehow avoid teaching them anything of value. He was utterly useless. They had learned nothing interesting or informative at all apart from the fact that Quirrell was an intensely annoying individual who absolutely reeked of garlic.

This was particularly bad news for Artemis since her sense of smell was much more highly developed and sensitive than the other young witches and wizards in the room. It was so bad for her that her eyes were watering pretty much constantly.

Not that she was the only disgruntled one in this class. There was, in fact, a great deal of huffing and low, unimpressed muttering going on in the DADA classroom and not all of it from the students in blue and bronze. The Hufflepuffs may not be the most academic of Houses but they were famed for their work ethic and their perseverance. Such shoddy teaching from an obviously sub-par professor was anathema to them as much as it was to the scholarly Ravenclaws.

It was even more so for Shelley Potter who had been looking forward to this class for ages only to be left cold by her professor's total ineptitude and his ability to make this, potentially most interesting of subjects, so interminably bloody dull. It made her unspeakably furious. Furious enough that she had already broken three of her pencils on her desk and had that old, familiar, eye twitch starting. This was not good news for anybody who happened to be in her immediate vicinity as it was usually the prelude to an outbreak of her prodigious and violent temper erupting.

It didn't help her mood that every time the stuttering idiot that was supposed to be teaching them turned his back on the class a sharp pain shot through her skull from just behind her famous scar. Coincidence? Definitely not.

Shelley didn't believe in coincidence. She was a scientist. When a cause and effect was observed there must be a reason for it and like any good scientist she was determined to find that reason out.

His clothing choices had also caught her attention.

Why was a clearly fourth or fifth generation British wizard even wearing a turban? Even for the mostly brain dead and illogical wizards it was beyond nuts. True Shelley had her own piece of wonderfully insane headwear but she still wore it for a very good reason. To hide her scar. This set her to wondering what precisely the terrible professor was hiding away beneath his own fabulously stylish turban and she began to put her fearsome mind to the task of finding out.

Shelley brightened somewhat at the thought that what was clearly needed here was some ... _experimentation_. Yay!

Everyone noticed her unreasonably chipper mood that persisted for the rest of that day and right through to bedtime, despite the dreary drudgery of, what would quickly become known as, the worst day of their school week this year. If any of them felt the need to comment on her uncharacteristically cheerful demeanour, however, they wisely managed to suppress doing so.

.

As good as she had been in all of her classes to date, when her friends and peers saw what she was capable of on Wednesday morning it made all of her previous exploits pale in comparison. Something very special awoke in Shelley after seeing what 'cute professor kitty' could do with her mastery of this branch of magic and she was enthralled. As much by it's difficulty and complexity as with the infinite possibilities, only restrained by the breadth of her imagination, that it offered.

Shelley Potter really shone in Transfiguration.

Whether it was her genes from her father, who had been particularly good in the subject, or her natural talent and genius, Minerva McGonagall wouldn't like to have hazarded a guess. Her prowess was clear and obvious though. As was her power.

While the other students were still struggling to get their matchsticks to change colour, the 'girl-who-lived' had already produced a dozen perfect needles and was currently engaged in the task of enlarging them. Once this was achieved, she then waved her wand in a complex pattern and stitched them together to make a couple of five foot tall stick figures.

Which she then proceeded to animate, further enhancing her reputation in her deputy headmistress' eyes.

Shelley leaned over Sally and whispered in Artemis' ear that caused the wolf to grin hugely as she brought out a small rectangular device from her robe pocket, fiddled with it for a moment and then set it on her desk. Minerva McGonagall watched in awe as her most 'special' student smiled (very creepily) and pointed her twisted, ancient wand at the human sized constructs muttering something unintelligible under her breath. She would have normally taken House points for such blatant disruption but she really wanted to see what the girl would do next.

It was spectacular and brilliant.

In a life spanning almost eighty years, all of which she had been surrounded by magic, the Transfiguration professor had never seen anything quite like what happened next. And certainly never in a classroom. Especially not in _her_ classroom. A student was dancing (rather skillfully) on _her_ desk with two transfigured, animated constructs for the amusement of the class.

To her intense irritation and bemusement, the usually stern, utterly irascible deputy headmistress and Transfiguration Mistress of Hogwarts found herself tapping her feet and nodding her head along with the noisy, soul-funk, anthem that blasted from Artemis' i-pod. What was worse was that it was taking every ounce of her considerable willpower to not throw her arms around like several of her students were now doing. What was even worse than that was that she was enjoying every second of this ridiculous spectacle.

Artemis Amarok was honking with laughter and thumping her desk in delight at the sight before her. If there was anyone who knew how to 'Express Yourself' in their own crazily unique style it was her new friend Shelley Potter. By the Great Wolf that girl was nuts. And she loved her for it.

.

One of the highlights of the Hufflepuffs' first week at Hogwarts occurred on the practice field where all first years were taught the basics of flying by the scary looking Madam Hooch. Inevitably it was initiated by their most brilliant dorm-mate and her protective, white haired friend. Which was strange since it started out pretty poorly.

This was one of the things that Shelley hadn't managed to practice over the summer and, as such, she was actually feeling rather nervous about it. Of course, all that nervous tension drained away the instant that her broom slapped, quivering into her outstretched hand at her falsely confident 'up' command.

She shared a manic grin with Arte' who had, likewise, managed to bring broom to hand in a similarly spectacular manner. These grins remained in place and even grew wider as they mounted their brooms and moved into a hover a few feet above the grass. This was _awesome_. More so because, despite their lack of experience, the two Badgers looked to be rather good at it.

Poor old Neville wasn't doing quite as well as the rest of them though, and just before either Shelley or Madame Hooch could get to him to offer some helpful and timely advice his broom shot ten feet in the air before turning over and dumping him off of it. The Longbottom heir landed awkwardly on his outstretched arm with a terrified whimper and a very loud and nasty 'crack'.

Even through the pain and embarrassment, however, Neville Longbottom was learning one of the major benefits to being a member of Hufflepuff House. With his head now in the enviable position of being in the very nice smelling Megan Jones' lap, he looked in astonishment at all of the yellow robed witches concerned faces as they surrounded him. He was being stroked and smoothed and cried over as he lay there and honestly, the excrutiating amount of pain he was in was almost worth it just to experience this.

Unfortunately Madam Hooch was less enthusiastic about their attentions and his euphoria died away to be replaced, once more, with agony as the girls were shoo-ed off and he was peeled from Megan's soothing presence.

There were a few sniggers from the Ravenclaw boys as they watched their injured House-mate being levitated into the castle and presumably towards the infirmary, but these stopped pretty bloody quickly. It wasn't Morag McDougal's 'shut up you morons' comment that did it though, but the cold, dead eyed stare and the menacing snarling growl from directed at them from Shelley and Artemis.

Once the appropriate apologies were given and grudgingly accepted, there was a lot of awkward silence and shuffling of feet from the assembled first years. Nobody was really sure what they were supposed to do now while they waited for their instructor's return.

Shelley's miniscule tolerance for standing around and doing nothing was exhausted within about thirty seconds after the hawk-eyed woman and her whimpering charge were through the door to the castle and out of sight. Then, with a quick glance around her to check for any teachers and/or prefects that could possibly stop her she ran to her broom, plucking it off the ground and leapt on as it started to rise. She pulled a couple of low level practice laps around the perimeter of the field then ducked down onto the worn shaft and began to gain some altitude.

She was really flying.

 _Flying._

Where had this _been_ all her life and just how had she survived without it. The feelings that coursed through Shelley's body as she encouraged the dilapidated broomstick ever higher and ever faster were entirely new and entirely brilliant. It was like the first time that she had danced along to her pop idol the wondrous Lady Gaga, or seeing that first jaw dropping episode of Strawberry Panic. Even the first time she used magic, that addictive rush that raced through her veins as her wand accessed her core and let the magic flow, even _that_ didn't beat the feeling of flying.

The freedom of being up here away from the world was utterly intoxicating. As was the adrenaline rush. It was a pretty close run thing but at this particular moment broomsticks were just beating out wands.

This was what she was born to do.

She eventually topped out at the level of the tallest tower at Hogwarts, worrying slightly about tripping any wards that might be higher up and spoiling her fun. She needn't have been concerned but she didn't know this yet and so Shelley dropped the nose of her broom and aimed it at the ant-like figures waving at her from the ground. As her speed increased and the distance between them decreased dramatically in the space of mere seconds, her classmates waving stopped being good natured and started to become frantic as they realised that she wasn't going to slow down. At all.

Just before ploughing into the pitch and totally on instinct, Shelley dragged upwards hard on the broom, standing it up to almost the vertical before twisting it around and levelling out again. She heaved herself up, flipping her legs across the shaft and landing lightly to sit side saddle, facing her astonished friends with her arms crossed and winked at them.

At least three of the young witches at whom this was directed blushed an impressive shade of red and tried to look anywhere but at her yellow and black, stocking clad legs being revealed by her gently flapping skirt. This meant that they didn't see her remove her scarf and transfigure it into a soccer ball that she then starting spinning on her index finger with a shit eating grin on her face. She brought their attention to it soon enough though by bouncing it off the little wolf's white haired head and straight back into her own hands.

"Are you in?"

Her insane new friend waggled her eyebrows at Artemis tossing the ball between her hands with a ridiculously large smile on her face and followed it up with a challenging tilt of her chin.

It was a game of chase.

On brooms.

Fifty feet up in the air.

Of _course_ she was in.

.

Professor Pomona Sprout emerged from the castle and onto the practice field in a rare fever, just managing to slow her awkward jogging as she burst through the large door and out into the late afternoon sunlight. Only to have to duck swiftly and 'hit the deck' as two howling lunatics on broomsticks hurtled mere inches above her lowered head and shot off into the distance again.

They were clearly so consumed by their game that they hadn't even noticed her presence.

She watched her two young Badgers pelt across the sky, dipping and weaving in tight turns and break-neck dives, attempting to wrestle the highly prized ball from each other's grasp and her intentions towards them underwent a sudden shift. Pomona had originally raced out here having spotted the two little idiots horsing around, unsupervised on brooms to drag them off to her office and read them the riot act for their stupidity. A few minutes of closer observation of their natural skill and talent in the air, however, had her thinking along different lines entirely

Not that she was going to let them know that until the last possible moment, of course. Finally ready she pulled her wand and fired off some impressive red sparks into their path to catch the attention of her wayward, lunatic, little 'Puffs and yelled at the top of her voice.

"Shelley Potter! Artemis Amarok! Come here this instant."

.

The two small witches followed their Head of House through the rough corridors of the castle still grinning and snickering at each other despite the serious amount of trouble that they were so clearly in. The only wrinkle in their day, as far as they were concerned, was that their fun game had been ended before an outright winner could be declared. As competitive as they were, five 'snatches' each was not exactly a desirable result for either of them and there was a great deal of good natured shoulder bumping and whispered arguing going on.

So it was that they arrived at their destination without really paying any attention to where they actually were. Although when they did realise it, they sobered quite quickly. It was deputy headmistress McGonagall's classroom. Well that couldn't be good.

"Professor McGonagall, would you mind terribly if I were to borrow Miss Gently for a moment?"

Minerva didn't like her classes being disrupted and would have indeed objected had she not caught sight of a wildly bobbing sunflower atop a very recognisable, crooked top hat peeking around her friend and colleague's plump figure. If the insane and dangerous Miss Potter was involved it would probably be better to just accept the interruption with good grace and let it play out. She was fairly sure that whatever was going on wouldn't go anywhere near as smoothly as Pomona intended.

Which should be fun to watch.

She positioned herself in the doorway to do precisely that.

"Miss Gently, I think that I may have a solution to your chaser problem."

Word had gotten around the Badgers sett rather quickly about just how terrifyingly powerful, sneaky and nasty minded their new first year witches were and Demetia Gently knew better than to scoff at this. She, rather wisely, kept a tight rein on her mouth, preventing it from running off at the absurdity of potentially fielding two eleven year olds on a school quidditch team and settled on adopting a slightly surprised expression instead.

Shelley and Artemis were also silent but for an entirely different reason. They were just stunned that they weren't going to be getting in trouble for their impromptu bout of unsupervised stunt flying. Far from it, it seemed. It looked as if they were actually getting rewarded for it.

.

Their 'punishment' was the talk of the school at lunchtime. Although no-one who wasn't part of their inner circle was stupid enough to let them hear it. Shelley's reputation for being incredibly gifted at magic and her mental instability, along with Artemis' rumoured furry little problem kept the whispering well below their hearing range. Well, below Shelley's anyway. Artemis heard every word and it only made her grin wider. Something that a seriously miffed Susan Bones was determined to wipe off of her face.

"So you're not getting expelled then?"

"Nah."

"Detention?"

"Nope." Artemis smiled rather smugly as she popped the 'p' in her second one word reply.

"What then?"

"Quidditch."

" _Please_ don't tell me they put you on the team. How's that fair?"

"Oh come on Sue, even you have to admit that they were bloody brilliant."

She did and they were. Not that she would ever admit it to the two reckless, impulsive, grinning lunatics opposite her. Or the dedicated band of yellow robed quidditch groupies that they had since attracted with their flying skill and the promise of something that Hufflepuff House hadn't had for a very long time. A potentially winning team.

.

All the breathless fun and excitement of finally being able to practice magic, new classes, new frends and new activities like flying couldn't last forever, of course. By the time that her final class on Friday was over, it was quite clear to Shelley that there were some fairly serious, institutional problems here at Hogwarts.

One of these was the apathy and indifference with which the issue of bullying was met by most of the students, staff and, most worryingly, the headmaster.

Now Shelley Potter hadn't exactly been an angel in her brief life to date and, indeed, she had not been above bullying others herself to get what she wanted. However, she had a reputation in the magical world, among the light as a beacon of purity and goodness and among her school House as a proud Badger who would fight tooth and nail to protect them. She understood her reputation and the power that it granted her and she knew what was expected of her.

A line in the sand had to be drawn. A lesson had to be taught. An example had to be made.

Helpfully, on the first morning of their first weekend at their new school, a group of misguided fifth year Slytherins provided her with an opportunity to do all three.

.

Every great hero, or in this case heroine, needs an audience for their great deeds of derring do it was with a good amount of frustration that Shelley noticed how empty this corridor was where Cedric Diggory was getting a beating. She supposed that it was quite fortuitous after all though, since she really didn't want to get expelled for what she was about to do. Besides, this being a school, everybody was sure to know the truth, or at least her version of it dispersed via the ever efficient rumour mill, before breakfast tomorrow.

It was much better to be whispered about in fearful tones as the rumoured assailant than to be punished for being the proven one. No matter what the provocation.

Their House-mate, Cedric Diggory was getting a serious beating, both magical and physical. His rumoured prowess as a top class quidditch seeker had had the unfortunate effect of drawing the attention of some of the more violently rabid opposition fans. Seeing the green and silver trimmings on their uniforms just made Shelley's smile all the wider. Perfect. The mostly pureblood Slytherins were the worst bullies in the whole school and it would make the message that she was about to deliver all the more telling.

Artemis saw that smile and knew that there was going to be trouble. It was the kind of smile that certain people gave when they sniffed the promise of being able to dish out some serious violence. She sighed quietly while rolling her shoulders and cracking her joints in preparation for the coming battle, thinking that she really should have picked another carriage to ride on the train.

The large Slytherin boy leading this assault on the talented Hufflepuff seeker looked the four, yellow clad first years up and down before chuckling to himself. This turned out to be a very big mistake on his part.

Shelley let loose with a curse straight out of her Dark Arts book that she had been practising all summer on Dudley's dartboard (requiring her to purchase a job lot of new ones to replace those that she destroyed as well as some plaster to repair the wall behind it) so her proficiency and accuracy with it were excellent. She used the small version of her wand-staff to hit him in the knee with the dark purple, piercing hex which flew straight and true, punching a ragged hole right through the joint.

His screams were most satisfactory as was the impressive amount of blood and bone that sprayed out from the new wound. There was a brief moment of silence as everybody in the corridor took a few seconds to come to grips with the fact that the 'girl-who-lived' had just deliberately maimed someone before ...

 _"Bitch!"_

Shelley just grinned, gave him a jaunty salute and flipped her focus to it's staff form before putting him out for the count with a well placed and ever so slightly over-powered s _tupefy._

His friends finally shook themselves out of their stupor at this and began their attack in earnest. As the hexes splashed against Susan Bones swiftly cast _protego_ (her Aunt Amelia had insisted that she learned this very useful spell at an early age) Artemis felt an almost tangible crack as her patience snapped. Nobody attacked her friends. Nobody attacked her mate. Nobody attacked her pack. Shelley may be amused by the whole situation but all Artemis felt was rage.

The white haired girl exploded through the shield charm, morphing into her wolf form as she went and leapt at the nearest moron, knocking him to the floor, causing him to hit his head and lose his wand. She half changed back and used her momentum off the wall to bounce back and deliver a rather substantial punch, claws and all, to her next target's kidneys before having to dodge out of the way of an incoming curse.

 _"No!"_

Hannah, seeing an attack on 'her' wolf, finally pulled her wand and hit him with a stinging hex to the groin, following it up with a wild, haymaker to the nose of the now doubled up young man. It wasn't a terribly hard or a terribly accurate swing and he knocked the blonde's feet from under her, struggling upright to in preparation to stomp on the little witch, only to be felled by an utterly livid Susan Bones. Or more specifically by her boot to his face.

The last two Slytherin thugs, after being stunned by the unexpectedness and ferocity of the tiny Puffs' attack, were now rather wary and much more prepared for them. The first one to try his luck though, soon found himself desperately attempting to hold off an enraged girl with wolf like features and very sharp teeth. He didn't manage it for long since Hannah and Susan fired off some well aimed stinging hexes at his biceps, causing them to buckle and allowing the wolf to close with him.

Half grinning, half snarling Artemis sank her claws into the boy's shoulders bringing a yelp of pain which was swiftly silenced as she delivered a devastating head butt to his face with the dense bone of her forehead. He dropped to the floor, not quite unconscious, but not far from it.

Fear, at last overcoming his Slytherin pride, (better a live snake than a dead lion) the last, horrified thug turned to run.

Not that he got very far.

Shelley halted him in his tracks with a wave of her staff, wrapping him in thick, black, conjured ropes, spun him around and brought him back down the corridor. He was steered past his last remaining conscious colleague, who was currently being pummeled by the three other small witches, and face to face with the seriously creepy and seriously powerful 'girl-who-lived.'

Who, once he was within range of her, took the offered opportunity to disabuse him of the notion that she was in any way a 'light' witch. Putting a finger to her lips and narrowing her eyes, Shelley thought about the best way to make sure that these idiots never messed with her House-mates ever again. Having already clearly demonstrated her magical prowess she decided to end today's lesson with a healthy dose of good, old fashioned physical violence.

The large buckled, black, boot, propelled with an incredible amount of force caught him right in the un-mentionables and he fell to his knees gasping for breath. Shelley then stepped back, took careful aim, and swung her staff like a baseball bat hitting the unfortunate boy square in the side of his head and dropping him to the floor with the rest of his comrades.

The four witches picked their way daintily through the half dozen bleeding, groaning and semi-conscious older boys to retrieve their grateful House-mate and continue on their original path to their common room.

Cedric was not in a good way. And actually neither were Susan or Hannah. Both of the girls were nursing bloodied knuckles and probably had a few broken fingers. She really needed to teach them how to throw a punch without injuring themselves since this was very likely not the last time they were going to get into a scrape like this. It was just a shame that Dudley wasn't here to give them some lessons as he really was turning into quite the talented boxer since joining the gym at his own school.

Two more names had just been added to her list of visitors to Number Four Privet Drive this Christmas.

Luckily for the group by the time they reached the Badger's sett it was almost empty so nobody much saw them arriving looking like they had just been in a fight with a grizzly bear. And those who did see it were either part of Shelley's Marauders or were intelligent enough to know not to talk. To anyone. Ever.

"How can we help?"

The two Sallys had appeared instantly to offer their services as soon as Shelley and Artemis had got their injured settled on to a couple of couches near the fire.

"Go and find that seventh year Nymptawhatsit Tonks and tell her I need a favour. If she can't do healing charms then tell her to bring somebody that can. Somebody discrete obviously."

"What about looking for the people that attacked you?"

"Oh trust me Sally, they got off a _lot_ worse than this." The two blondes shivered at Shelley's mirthless chuckle. "Besides we were the ones who attacked them."

As her dorm-mates hurried off to carry out her instructions she winked at Susan and received a small grin in return.

They were both feeling rather good about doling out a bit of 'rough justice' and it wasn't like they were going to get in trouble for it. Tonks would get them all healed up and looking normal in no time at all and provide them with any necessary alibis. Not that they expected to have to use them.

If the boys did press the matter of their assault they would have had to explain why they were beating on poor old Cedric in the first place. Besides, there was no way in Hell that six upper year Slytherins were actually going to admit to getting their asses handed to them by a bunch of first year Hufflepuff witches. And without the statements of the 'injured' parties there was no proof. It was the perfect crime.

.

A mere two hours later their Head of House strode into the common room where the girls were now working on their homework and listening to Artemis' 'Super Sounds of the Seventies' playlist. For the second time in their first week she was having to call out some of her first years for a possible disciplinary matter and she was less than happy about it. Their supposedly innocent little faces didn't fool her for a minute.

"Miss Potter, Miss Amarok, Miss Abbott, Miss Bones. Come with me please the Headmaster wants to see you."

Ah. So it appeared that the rumours had spread faster than she had anticipated. It didn't matter much but Shelley still filed the information away for future reference in her impressive mental library. Anyway, even if the little crybabies had actually talked, they still had their perfect health and their unshakeable alibis. She wasn't concerned. It was expected and she had all of their answers ready.

"Oh good, I needed to talk to him about the terrible state of the instruction that we are supposedly receiving in Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts anyway. Just let me grab my notes and I'll be right with you professor."

That stopped Pomona Sprout dead in her tracks.

If she had heard that correctly it seemed that young Miss Potter was more concerned about taking her headmaster, the venerable and (generally) much admired Albus Dumbledore, to task over his running of the school than anything she might have done wrong. Oh who was she kidding. Of course they had done something wrong. Anybody with half a brain could see that these girls were an absolute menace to those who stood in their way.

Still, they were _her_ menaces (and immensely fun ones at that) and she would stand by them to the bitter end until it was proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were in the wrong. She thought that if the headmaster imagined that they were going to fold and confess all of their crimes with a single look at his twinkling eyes then he was deluding himself. Shelley Potter and her band of young hooligans were much more than a bunch of pretty 'Puffs. There was genuine steel behind their silky skin and she was looking forward to the old man getting a taste of it.

Pomona overheard the girls soft singing as she marched them all to the headmaster's office and she couldn't quite help joining in, humming along. Very quietly so that they wouldn't hear her but loud enough to make her smirk at their amusing lyrics.

 _"We are the toughs, the Hufflepuffs._

 _Defenders of anarchy."_

Okay so now she was _really_ looking forward to seeing her little Badgers in action. The bearded wonder and his greasy dungeon bat, who was just _bound_ to be there, weren't going to know what hit them. These devious little monsters were going to tear them apart. She had never been more proud to call herself a Hufflepuff.

.

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 **Reviews are our cookies and you wouldn't want us starve now would you. Seriously though the feedback would be very helpful on this one guys so do let us know how we're doing with it, and I promise that I will try and answer all of your questions. Of which I am sure there will be many.**

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 **DtR xx.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Back again after something of a cliffy (not really though) last time out.**

 **Now as with most of what I write, this fic is going to divide opinion when it comes to Albus Dumbledore and that's okay, I actually encourage the debate. Having said that, I don't believe that any but the most ego-maniacal monsters of history (Hitler, Stalin, Donald Trump etc.) are truly** _ **all**_ **bad, or all good for that matter. Most people are varying shades of gray and I tend to write them to reflect this.**

 **Ron Weasley is one of my very few exceptions to this rule. I really hate that boy and will 'bash' the bastard at every conceivable opportunity.**

 **Big love to the mighty Tenzo51 without whom this story wouldn't have even happened, let alone be anywhere near as good as it is.**

 **Enjoying yourselves yet? I know we are** **.**

 **I'm not JKR and I don't make any money from this. Which is a bit of a shame.**

 **DtR xx.**

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 **The Excellent Adventure of a Wolf, a Loony and a Very Bored Heroine.**

.

 **7\. Heroes and Villains.**

.

The four Hufflepuff Marauders were sitting in hard backed chairs in the Headmaster's office in front of Albus Dumbledore, swinging their legs and giving out their most innocent looking expressions. Nobody in the well appointed office was fooled for an instant.

The little monsters' Head of House certainly wasn't.

Pomona Sprout hadn't known the sainted Potters as well as most of the other staff, neither of them being overly good at or even very interested in her subject, but she _did_ know Shelley. Even after a brief week's acquaintance it was abundantly clear to the Hufflepuff head of House that the 'girl-who-lived' was veritable maelstrom of mischief and would, no doubt, be the catalyst for all the chaos that would likely occur here in the next seven years.

She looked around at and gauged the reactions of the other two occupants of the office.

The headmaster was there, twinkling away and smiling in his habitual grandfatherly way, although she did sense a more than a little perturbation behind it if the slight furrowing of his brow was any indication. Not surprising really since the 'girl-who-lived' hadn't exactly been living up to her 'humble heroine' reputation that the old man had been touting to anyone who would listen for the last ten years.

And of course, as predicted, Snape was there, glowering at her little Badgers with barely suppressed rage while pacing in what he probably believed to be a menacing manner in front of the window. He had far too many bad memories of James bloody Potter and the hateful, bullying, bastard's rule breaking and sometimes violent nature to dismiss his equally horrible daughter as a suspect in the hospitalisation of six of his Snakes. Plus, he had pulled the details of their embarrassing defeat directly from their minds so he knew full well that it was her doing.

Shelley Potter may have her mother's eyes and delicate bone structure but she was proving to be just as irritating, arrogant and uncontrollable as her bastard of a father. And then there were her little group of friends. The four of them. Just like the four of _them_. The original and much hated marauders. Only instead of Potter, Black, Lupin and Pettigrew, it was Potter, Bones, Amarok and Abbott. They were the very image of that group of Gryffindor gits and seemed just as prone to causing as much violence and mayhem as possible.

He for one was not about to let them get away with it.

"I know you did it."

"No, we didn't."

Of course, it the Potter brat who answered him back. Instantly and without even the slightest hint of remorse. As always when faced with the girl he struggled to contain his anger.

"Yes, you damned well did, Potter and I'll see you expelled for it. _All_ of you."

"This would be a lot simpler if you just went to the Hufflepuff common room, where we have been _all day_ , and confirmed our presence there at the time of the alleged incident, you know."

"Alibis can be faked. Besides ... I _know_ you did it."

Ah, Shelley thought, he had read the minds of the 'victims' then. A change of tack was required. While they might be a rather dreary and uninteresting read there could be no doubting the usefulness of books on Wizarding law. Especially in a situation like this.

"Then, if you are so confident in our guilt, you should take the matter to the board of governors and indeed have us expelled for a violent and _unprovoked_ attack on these Slytherin paragons of virtue, Master Snape ..."

Two of the four girls went slightly rigid with nerves at this point. Susan and Hannah weren't so sure that telling the horrid man to expel them was exactly the right way to go here. Neither of them were at all confident that he wouldn't push for just that. Only Artemis was relaxed as she was totally confident that her ridiculously smart new BFF had a plan. And indeed she did.

"... Provided you have the appropriate evidence of course. That is to say evidence that has _not_ been gained through the illegal use of leglimency on a minor obviously."

This abrupt shift in the atmosphere of the office was extremely noticeable as everyone stared at Shelley in shock, although she didn't really understand why they should be so shocked. It was obvious to her.

Things like Snape's habitual mind raping of his students and his prior association with the Dark Lord were easy enough to pick up on if you paid attention and asked the right questions around the castle. And Shelley _always_ asked the right questions. The way that his and the headmaster's heads had snapped up, as if slapped, at her not very subtle insinuation made it clear that they thought that their secrets were undiscoverable by anyone, let alone a lowly, muggle raised, first year.

Morons.

Shelley despised people that didn't use either their common sense or the brains that they were given and too many of the magicals that she had encountered thus far fell into this category. Slimy Snape definitely did and Grandpa Gandalf was a maybe but she was prepared to hate them both equally for not utilising their obvious intelligence to it's full capacity just on principle.

She did have some exceptions to this rule, her new friends weren't exactly blessed with an over abundance of brains to start with but they _were_ only eleven so she was prepared to let it slide in their cases. Mainly in the hope that they could be taught some good habits over the next few years while in close proximity to her own special brand of extreme but warped genius. But even if she didn't manage to drag all of them up to a respectably decent level of 'less stupid', it didn't really matter. It was always handy to have a few dull-witted minions around to do all the messy stuff and who wouldn't ask too many awkward questions.

Her attention was brought back to the present situation by old man Gandalf having to separate the two Heads of House who were now squaring up to each other, following Snape's accusation, with wands drawn. She felt an unfamiliar warmth in her chest at the sight of professor Sprout jumping in to defend her little Badgers from Slimy's sour invective. They didn't really need defending but it was sweet of her to try. It also made for a very good show.

Having suspected that it could go this way, Shelley moved her and the girls chairs to face them and pulled out a pre-prepared box of popcorn from her satchel. She took a handful and passed it along as they sat back to watch the performance. They 'helped' the flagging argument to re-ignite with much cheering of Sprout and equal amounts of booing and hissing at Snape in true pantomime style. This was noticed by the participants resulting in a wide grin from their Head of House as she began playing up to the audience and the throwing of a massive Diva strop from the Potions teacher. Who then ended it in true Diva style by storming out of the office in a huff.

"Oh no, Severus don't go, it was just getting fun."

Professor Sprout's unhelpful plea went unheard. It was too late, he was already out of the door with his black robes billowing behind him as he stalked off moodily muttering about bloody Potter and bloody Puffs. The four girls' disappointed cries of 'boo' and 'stay' hadn't even helped to keep him there. Unsurprisingly enough.

.

By this stage Dumbledore had realised that he wasn't going to get anywhere with this lot. He was a little worried about their 'light' credentials as far as their 'Snape baiting' antics were concerned but he couldn't really blame them, he supposed.

His Potions Master was, to put it mildly, a bit of a git.

Of course, he couldn't let such an inconsequential thing as the truth get in the way of his grand plan. He _needed_ Severus. More to the point he needed his Potions Master to be just as unpleasant and unreasonable as he had always been. It was one of the ways that he had hoped to keep young Shelley Potter downtrodden and pliable enough to be open to the suggestion of sacrificing herself for the greater good. Keeping her humble and grateful to him for the scraps of attention and affection that he would give out on occasion.

Humble and grateful.

Hmm. These were two words that could most definitely _not_ be applied to Miss Potter. Unfortunately, she seemed to have been blessed with the more undesirable traits from her parents' gene pool. That was a highly inconvenient inquisitive nature from her mother and a rather nasty and somewhat brutal, vindictive streak from her father. Neither of which was, in any way, good for his future plans of martyrdom for her. And then there was her intelligence.

Shelley Potter's intelligence was fearsome in it's all too apparent capacity. Fearsome enough for her to have by-passed both the binding that he had placed on her magic when she was a baby and the wards of Hogwarts itself. While it was terribly amusing how she had set up her entertainment area in the Hufflepuff dorms, he could think of at least a dozen, less amusing, things that she could have done with that knowledge. Like setting land mines in the Slytherin common room, for instance. The fact that she hadn't done this (yet) gave him hope that she was still 'light' but didn't solve his main problem.

It had given him quite the quandary.

What was he going to do with her now? Obviously, he couldn't carry on with his original plans for her as she would, no doubt, see the pattern that would emerge and move to thwart it at the first opportunity. He needed a new way to deal with her. His frustration and impotence at her terrifying logic as she continued to use it to verbally demolish the reputation of his school over the next twenty or so minutes, grew to a whole new level.

By the time she had finished taking him to task, his 'grand plan' was in tatters. Albus Dumbledore was left alone, slumped in his chair and staring glassy eyed about him at all of the doodads and thingumies that told him about Shelley Potter's health and well-being. For the first time since he had set them up, he really wished that they would all just stop. Or spontaneously explode.

Unless he found a new way to deal with her, he was sure that the 'girl-who-lived' was going to give him an aneurysm before the first term of her first year was finished. Albus _really_ wasn't having a good day.

.

Shelley, on the other hand, was having an absolute blast. She had enjoyed watching an extremely feisty and entertaining argument between two supposedly mature Heads of House. And now she was going to get to give a lecture on the purpose of education in general and the detail of how that related to Hogwarts.

If she did it properly, it should really put old Gandalf's nose out of joint.

"Number one, the House system."

Excellent start. The old git's face had already dropped any pretense of amusement and she had barely started yet.

"The House system is actually quite a good idea for promoting competition. However. This, once worthy, idea seems to have deteriorated and descended into 'win at all costs' mentality which now only encourages over-prideful behaviour and bullying which _all_ of the Houses participate in. Apart from Hufflepuff of course."

Dear old professor Sprout smirked at her for that one.

"Number two, blood status."

Virtually everyone in the office went very still. Blood purity was a very uncomfortable subject for all of them.

"Where are the introductory classes for those new to the Wizarding world? Muggle born and muggle raised children are plucked from their mundane lives, unceremoniously dumped into the deep end of wizarding Britain and simply left to either sink or swim. We come up against situations when interacting with our magically raised peers where our ignorance of their beliefs can cause serious upset or offense. I would actually hypothesize that it is this, more than any other single thing, that has caused the ongoing tension and hostility between the purebloods and the muggleborns."

Her rapt audience were all goggling at the small, black haired witch as she laid into the long held 'wisdom' that such classes were an un-necessary extravagance.

"It's the kind of situation that could be easily avoided if more comprehensive information was available to both sides, perhaps as a compulsory unit in our first term here at school. The best way to fight bigotry of all kinds is with the clear and concise delivery of the facts. I'm not, for a minute, suggesting that it would make all of the problems disappear but it would certainly be a good start."

Shelley hid her grin as she saw Gandalf's eye twitching and his fingers starting to worry at his impressive beard. Oh she _did_ hope that he pulled some of it out. Susan just looked a bit shocked at the simplicity of the solution. Sprout had a very proud look on her face while Hannah was just doing whatever Artemis was, which at the moment consisted of leaning back in her chair and smiling in appreciation at Shelley's unassailable logic.

"Number three, teaching standards."

There was now an audible groan from behind the headmaster's desk.

"What subjects are taught are done so with mostly acceptable quality. With a few glaring exceptions that is. There is one class that needs some work and two that require nothing less than a complete and utter overhaul at the most fundamental of levels."

Now she had them all leaning forward in their seats.

"History of Magic. I don't actually have a problem with this class ... at the moment ... but I understand that I have somewhat different requirements to most of the other students here. And even while it is _currently_ interesting to me I cannot honestly see this situation lasting for long if the older girls are to be believed. Perhaps some updating of the course material, if not the actual professor, is long overdue."

She paused briefly, all the better to anticipate the moment.

"Next, and one of the more serious problem areas, is Potions. Potion Master Snape may be a certified genius in his field but as a teacher he leaves an _awful_ lot to be desired. I would go so far as to call him an almost total loss as a professor of this or any other subject to which he might want to turn his attention."

Albus blinked at the deliberate bluntness of Shelley's statement, delivered without any emotion but his denial was quickly shut down as the girl continued on.

"You were a teacher once, were you not Headmaster?" He nodded. "And tell me did you simply write a list of instructions on the board and then stalk around your classroom saying nothing other than to insult or intimidate your pupils?"

"He really does that?"

The words had escaped before Albus could stop them. He hadn't realised how much like Minerva the portly and mostly genial woman was until she began tearing strips off him for not knowing just how piss poor Severus' methods really were.

"Lastly. Defence Against the Darks Arts or DADA."

Shelley paused to let her most tragic sigh out and glare at the old man.

"As far fetched as it seems professor Quirrell is and even worse teacher than Master Snape. At least _he_ can speak ... not that you really want him to, mind you ... but he is physically able, professor Quirrell can't even do that."

"A little harsh don't you think Miss Potter?"

She could tell his heart wasn't really in defending either himself or his teaching staff at this point but it didn't stop her from giving him both barrels.

"Not really, no. Everything, and I mean _everything_ that I've learned about Defense I read myself over the summer. It says a lot about how crap _your_ teacher is when someone who has only been here a week could run the class better than they can. And that's only the first year classes, I dread to think what kind of state the OWL and NEWT students will be in come examination time."

Take _that_ beardy weirdy Gandalf.

"Oh, and it also doesn't help that the tedious git gives me an enormous bloody migraine every time he turns around."

She hadn't meant to let that particular piece of information slip out but when she saw Gandalf's reaction she was rather glad that she had. The very audible crack that her headmaster's neck made as his head whipped around to stare at her after her last statement was witnessed by everyone but only Shelley put the reaction together with how the DADA professor affected her. She narrowed her eyes at him, beginning to suspect that Albus Dumbledore knew a great deal more than he was letting on.

.

The image on Shelley's laptop was clear and crisp, since it was a really high end one, and Artemis had never been quite so glad that she had made friends with the scary smart 'girl-who-lived'. All of the insanity and apprehension over their attack on the Slytherin quidditch fanboys and it's possible fallout had now disappeared with her black haired friend's offer to set up a dedicated skype connection for her.

Destpite Shelley's brilliance in all things, Artemis hadn't _really_ believed that she could do it what with the restrictions of magical interference and no phone lines but somehow the mad genius Miss Potter had made it happen. The little wolf realised by now that even if she did want to know how Shelley had done it, she probably wouldn't understand the explanation anyway, so she contented herself with giving the girl a rib cracking hug and a heartfelt 'thank-you'.

As the image of her family popped up on the screen, smiling tearfully and waving at her, Artemis knew that this was not nearly a big enough reward for her, newly titled, best friend forever. Something for her to think about later though because right now there was some serious chatting to be done.

"Hi Grandma."

"Artemis, it's so good to see you. How are you sweetheart? Are you settling in okay? Have you made any friends? How exactly did you manage to get a computer to work, by the way?"

"Uh okay." She ticked them off on her fingers as she answered the old Alpha's questions. "I'm really well, I'm settling in fine, making loads of new friends and we can Skype like this because one of my new friends is crazy brilliant. Want to meet her?"

The three true wolves on the other end of the connection sniggered among themselves as their treasured pack princess dragged a clearly unwilling black haired girl with stylish oval glasses into her lap following a brief physical struggle. Which Artemis won of course.

"This is my friend Shelley Potter."

The Amaroks had to bite back a chorus of ahh's as the adorable, green eyed girl squirming in Arte's lap gave them all a shy smile and a small wave.

"She's the one who set all of this up, along with our dance studio and our entertainment centre and she knows loads of spells already and she speaks frickin' _Japanese_ as well as English and French and Latin and ..."

"Oh, stop it."

Shelley didn't usually get embarrassed by people saying how clever she was, since she thoroughly deserved the praise and all, but as Arte' continued in her excited rant about how great her new BFF was and all of the cool things she could do, the redness crept into her face. There was something about the piercing gaze of the Alaskan wolves as they smiled (calculatingly if she was any judge ... and she was) at the girls' interaction that had her blushing away like a novice nun in a brothel.

When she did finally manage to break away from their intense 'chat' it was in just as an embarrassing manner as Susan literally pulled her out of Arte's grip and forced her to dance to the redhead's 'most favourite song ever'. To which event, Artemis then immediately shifted around with the laptop so that her relatives could watch the resulting insanity for themselves.

Susan Bones had been 'born again' into the church of dance and her joy in it's rituals and revels was unparalleled even among the fun loving members of the Hufflepuff girls' dorms. She approached this wonderful new world of muggle entertainment with the serious enthusiasm of a true convert and took every opportunity to exercise her new passion. This evening's exercise necessitated a partner and she had selected the most talented and experienced (but still weird and more than a little creepy) dancer in their group, Shelley Potter, to assist her.

Since seeing her little performance in Transfiguration earlier in the week, Susan had found her preferred musical genre and become the undisputed Seventies, disco, soul-funk queen of Hogwarts. Which was why the Amaroks now found themselves watching in fascination as a pair of small witches grooved on down, rather expertly it had to be said, to the opening strains of 'Carwash'.

Hannah had, meanwhile, emerged from the bathroom, spotted the now vacant lap of _her_ wolf and had run full pelt in order to leap in and fill it with an enthusiastic shout of 'mine!'. This lead to a roar of laughter from the other end of the international video connection as Roald saw his daughter's unintentional mate attacking his little girl with tickles and cuddles and, most interestingly, kisses.

"Hannah Banana!"

No matter about their 'situation' Roald Amarok had formed a great bond with the girl over the course of their back and forth letters over the latter part of the summer. It helped that she was pretty (looking to be full on gorgeous in later life) and bubbly and a lot of fun. He was so very proud of his daughter. A real chip off the old block.

"Hi Mister Amarok."

The blonde in Arte's lap took the time to greet the other two people on the screen before launching into a long and extremely biased account of their first week at Hogwarts and how 'naffing great' it was. He smiled at the image of his daughter resting her chin on the animated witch's shoulder and staring adoringly at her mate. He was exactly the same way with her mother. _Sooo_ cute. And in for _sooo_ much teasing when he could finally get a word in edgeways.

.

She snapped awake instantly, sensing another person looming over her and shifted with a quiet growl to instinctively protect the deeply sleeping Hannah lying next to her. Artemis groaned quietly so as not to wake her cutely snoring bed-mate, as she looked up into the glow of a dimly shining sunflower atop an all too familiar, back and yellow chequered, crooked top hat. The madly grinning face of a clearly excited Shelley Potter stared back at her from underneath the hat.

Oh balls.

Having got to know Shelley pretty damn well in the past week, Artemis knew that she didn't really have a choice in this. If her eccentric, genius friend had decided that they were going to have an adventure then they were _going_ to have an adventure whether she liked it or not. Sighing heavily, she extricated herself from Hannah, replacing herself in the girl's arms with her own pillow, and got dressed with a silent efficiency.

Ten minutes later she was not nearly so silent.

"Where are we going and why the holy hell are we doing it at two in the god-damn morning?"

Shelley's reply that the first was a secret and secondly, did she really _want_ to end up in the headmaster's office again, if not, then _that_ was why they were doing this now, shut the wolf up. Briefly. Artemis wasn't much of a whiner but being roused from her very comfortable bed and dragged along through cold corridors by her lunatic little friend seemed to have temporarily cured her of both her self respect and her manners. So she whined ... and moaned ... and grumbled ... and even bitched ... right up to the point that they emerged onto the quidditch pitch.

An unlocking spell and a summoning charm later and a broom came shooting across the grass to smack into Shelley's hand as she turned to face the wolf who was now sniffing the night air with her eyes closed. They snapped open again at the black haired girl's next words, even the beauty of the star studded night sky dimming in comparison to how her strange little friend made her feel.

"I know that your wolf hasn't had a chance to have a good run around yet so I thought you might like to have a game of chase with me."

Shelley waggled her eyebrows which made some of the weirdest shadows Artemis had ever seen appear on her face, bathed as it was, in the light of her illuminated sunflower. From her mad headwear to the bulbous ends of her steel tipped boots and all the colours of the rainbow that were represented in between, Artemis thought that this heroic, but extremely odd, girl pirouetting before her might just have been the best thing to ever happen to her. And she just could not contain herself for a moment longer.

She brought the 'girl-who-lived' down with ridiculous ease.

They hit the ground hard, rolling around and ended up all tangled up in each other. As ever, when any kind of physical effort was involved, Artemis came out on top and sat astride her friend with her hands on Shelley's shoulders, holding her tight to the grass. And, as ever, the crazy, brilliant witch with the lightning bolt scar on her forehead knew exactly what to say.

"Watch the hat you clumsy tart."

Artemis laughed and shook her head, flinging the sudden moisture from the unexpected and unbidden tears from her eyes.

"Best. Friend. Ever."

Shelley giggled, kissed her on the nose, rolled the wolf off of her, scrambled to her feet and then ran for the broom. Artemis watched her mentally suspect friend as she snatched up the battered old broomstick and took off, flying so low that her feet skimmed the short, well kept grass. She touched a finger to her still tingling nose, not able to keep the already huge grin from widening, then leapt into the air, transforming into her full wolf form and bounded off after the cackling oddball. By the Great Wolf, she loved that girl.

.

Hedwig and Bulvar sat in their positions at the small window in the very top of the owlery and gazed out at their human/wolfy pets playing on the quidditch pitch far below them. Round, amber eyes tracked their movements as the two, seemingly inexhaustible, small figures chased each other around the large playing field, occasionally tackling each other to the ground with yips of pleasure and infectious laughter.

It did look like a lot of fun.

She shook herself from the mesmerising little light that bobbed about wildly on top her strange pet's strange top hat and shot a glance at her companion. It had taken Hedwig a good few days to establish herself at the top of the owlery pecking order and another two to break the proud eagle owl in again, but she had finally got it done. She had found it necessary to employ more peaceful methods than she usually did, due to the sheer size of the annoying, but fierce, raptor and his easy acceptance of his secondary position had her frustrated that she hadn't done it this way back in Eeylop's Emporium.

No great battles were required, she had simply been nice to Bulvar, or nicer than she usually was anyway, and the huge beast was turned to putty in her pale and beautiful wings. This was a lesson that had been quickly and amazingly learned from her pet. The girl always picked the fiercest and strongest of her peers, demonstrated her dominance over them and then turned them into a valuable bodyguard/enforcer. It was as devious as it was effective and Hedwig loved and admired her for it.

The snowy, Queen of the roost and her hulking subordinate glanced briefly at each other before taking off from the window ledge and gliding silently down to join in the play. They swooped in with their natural hunter's instinct each taking their target with total surprise. Shock and awe at it's finest.

They brought their respective prey down in a gentle flurry of battering feathers and carefully retracted talons, not wanting to damage their pets too badly. Even so the small yelp from the wolf and surprised 'whoof' from the witch as the two were swept off of their feet, or more accurately, paws and broom, made Hedwig cringe internally.

Thoughts of their pets fragility, however, were brought to a swift close by the wolf rolling around back onto her legs, tongue lolling in happy confusion and her human sitting up, spitting out some grass and subjecting Hedwig to a 'hard stare'. It wasn't even close to giving an owl a run for it's money but Hedwig appreciated the fact that she had tried. Shelley then checked and re-adjusted her mad hat and cracked a small smile.

"Well, well. Look who else has decided they want to come and play."

Hedwig flew perfect synchronisation with her laughing, raven haired human, the two of them banking and turning in tight changes of direction a mere foot above the well manicured grass. Elbows and wingtips brushed the blades once more as they swivelled and accelerated, gaining ground on the scampering, white wolf and her feathered passenger. Laying across her back like that all that the stupid Bulvar was doing was slowing the wolf down and making for a bigger target for the flying hunters.

Their game went on and on, through the remainder of the night and only stopped when the dawn chorus rose from the Forbidden forest and alerted them to the time. Even then the two tired witches couldn't quite bring themselves to call an end to this, most magical of nights.

.

Sunday morning dawn rise was always Aurora Sinistra's favourite time of the week. The dark skinned Astronomy professor, perhaps strangely for someone of her highly specialised and nocturnal profession, was quite simply in love with the quiet break of day that she got to see in at the weekends. It was always fantastically peaceful and the view from her tower was always absolutely stunning.

Except for today apparently.

Today there was an obstruction to her view of the heavens in the form of two small bodies stretched out side by side across the thick glass dome of the Astronomy tower. There was certainly no mistaking the identities of her visitors. The pure white hair of Artemis Amarok and the _distinctive_ , colourful clothing and top hat of Shelley Potter made them instantly recognisable.

She was just wondering how the bloody hell they had gotten themselves out there when she caught sight of the two distinctive owls hopping about on a very dilapidated old school broom. Having heard about their flying skills from the extremely proud and extremely smug Pomona Sprout she was in no doubt that they _could_ have flown up here, but was just surprised that they had made it all the way on that old clunker. Broomsticks weren't exactly designed for going 'two up' in the first place let alone the badly outdated and heavily careworn ones that they had available here at school.

It was still a beautiful sight. The two friends bonding in the dawn rise, hand in hand, seemingly revelling in the chill of the crisp, Scottish early morning. She remembered her own early friendships, forged in this very tower two decades ago with two witches who these funny, clever little witches resembled so closely. The thoughts of Pandora and Lily, both gone now, brought liquid to her eyes and misted her vision. Those bright, shining stars who had brought so much joy into her life and whose light was now forever gone.

And that's when Aurora heard it, at the very moment of her sorrowful reminiscence. The singing. As the sun finally peeked above the low mountains in the East, two small voices rose to greet it with the perfect tune. Muffled by the glass as it was, it made the two voices seem even softer and more ethereal. Even the quiet hooting of the two weird little girls' equally weird owls seemed to be in time with their efforts. It was insane ... and utterly enchanting.

 _"Here comes the sun, here comes the sun._

 _And I say ... It's alright."_

The smile that spread across Aurora Sinistra's face as she watched the two first years greeting the new day in their own special way was wide and held a brightness to rival the rising sun itself.

If they were going to be making this a regular thing (and she sincerely hoped that they would be) then she wanted them to at least be safe. Well as safe as they could be lying on a glass domed tower, two hundred feet up in the air, without the luxury of a safety rail. She would at the very least make sure that they had something capable of getting them up and, perhaps more importantly, back down again without breaking their damned fool necks. Professor Sinistra summoned parchment and quill and sat with her morning tea to compose a letter to Gringotts.

She wasn't by any means a wealthy woman but she had enough for this. Enough to ensure that her two new favourite students had the proper equipment for both their early morning joy rides and to help consolidate their positions on their House quidditch team.

Aurora Sinistra might well have been a proud alumni of Slytherin herself, but even she thought that the much ignored and ridiculed Hufflepuffs were well past due for a winning season. Something that she was going to aid and abet to the best of her meagre ability even though it would probably be to the detriment of her own House. Something that she would be looking forward to with baited breath.

"Hufflepuff for the cup."

Unknown to the popular Astronomy professor, her whispered, hopeful, proclamation would be much repeated, though much louder and more vehemently, by many at Hogwarts this year. A new power was rising within the school and it's colours were the brightest of yellow and the deepest of black. The Badger revolution was about to begin.

.

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 **Ah random fluff, my favourite way to end a chapter.**

 **Reviews are our cookies and you wouldn't want us starve now would you. Seriously though the feedback would be very helpful on this one guys so do let us know how we're doing with it, and I promise that I will try and answer all of your questions. Of which I am sure there will be many.**

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 **DtR xx.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A bit of a time skip here to the end of October. This is going to annoy some of you as we seem to have skipped a lot of stuff but don't worry as it will all be explained next time.**

 **This is an almost totally Luna Lovegood POV chapter, which I know will delight some and appall others, but I don't care. I adore Luna and her ... um ...** _ **unique**_ **perspective and just couldn't resist doing this. It was a fantastically lovely way to relax after a truly horrible couple of weeks at my dull, soul destroying job and I would highly recommend it to everyone in a similar situation.**

 **Big love to the mighty Tenzo51 without whom this story wouldn't have even happened, let alone be anywhere near as good as it is. Co-conspirator and Beta extroadinaire.**

 **Also a major nod to the wonderful Hebisama who helped me get over my dis-like of writing flying scenes in general and quidditch scenes in particular. Anyone who hasn't read Uchiha of Ravenclaw yet really should go and do so. It's totally awesome.**

 **Enjoying yourselves yet? I know we are** **.**

 **I'm not JKR and I don't make any money from this. Which is a bit of a shame.**

 **DtR xx.**

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 **The Excellent Adventure of a Wolf, a Loony and a Very Bored Heroine.**

.

 **8\. Lovegood Moves In.**

.

When the day was dawning on a Hogwarts Sunday morning in late October all that could be heard was the snip-snip and swish-swish of enchanted shears and brooms as they worked relentlessly to prepare the school quidditch stadium. Slowly, other noises emerged as the staff did their rounds, checking the pitch, hoops and stands and ensuring that everyone attending today would have a good and safe time. Hogwarts was renowned for looking after their visitors and there were sure to be many of those today.

Virtually everyone who was anyone would be here today, given the student letters flying home with more regularity than usual, informing their relatives of the amazing re-appearance into their world of the 'girl-who-lived'. Most particularly these tended to be about her _peculiar_ brand of insane genius when it came to both magic and flying. They all wanted to see her first game and brag to their friends that they had done so.

For two hours they poured in from Hogsmeade and filled the visitors stands to the left of the pitch and opposite those where the students traditionally sat. Some had come hoping to see her succeed, some to see her fail, but most were here just to say that they had seen her and to dine out on it for a good few weeks.

Of course, some had other agendas entirely. Like the odd, blonde girl seated in the specially reserved 'press box' bouncing with excitement as she gazed around, trying to take in every sight, sound and smell of the wonderful place.

Hearing about Hogwarts and seeing it in pictures didn't do the place justice, even in her 'natural story-teller' father's reminiscences, it had to be experienced first hand to be believed. She would do literally anything to join her coven mates here and saw an opportunity to do just that without the un-necessary tedium of waiting around until next September.

Luna Lovegood had a plan.

.

The green clad Slytherins slid as quietly and gracefully into their section on the far left as was possible for such a large gathering of teenagers and pre-teens even of their, mostly stuffy and reserved, upbringing. It was entirely in keeping with their perceived superior social status that they did this so as to avoid all of that unseemly jostling for seats that the other, less polite, Houses indulged in.

Next came the neutrals. Reds and blues all mixed in together, virtually everyone in the Houses of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw who while not directly involved were still turning up to watch anyway. There was always hope that the uppity Snakes would get a right, good thumping even though they were the strongest (and dirtiest) team in Hogwarts. That, combined with, the much whispered rumours about the skills of Hufflepuff's new trio of players this year had them turning out en-masse. Just in case they were true.

Of course, it certainly didn't hurt that one of these new players was the heroine of the Wizarding world, Shelley Potter.

That was also the reason that the usually empty press box was filled to bursting. Nobody involved with Europe's media outlets wanted to Miss the 'girl-who-lived's first quidditch game. Their respective readers/listeners would never forgive them if they didn't cover it in the very greatest of detail.

She and daddy were still rather comfortable, however, since, due to their well deserved reputation for oddity, nobody who knew about them wanted to sit anywhere near the Lovegoods. This was a rare positive outcome from her family's status as the 'oddest publishers in town' so the two of them made the most of it by stretching out a bit in order to watch those nearest to them trying to shift even further away. This fun new game for the blonde haired father and daughter continued until they were distracted by an enormous crash from the school's main entrance.

The Hufflepuffs had arrived at last.

.

They poured out from the castle in a swarm of yellow and black, led by the excitable first and second year girls who were almost all rocking the full St. Trinians look with straw boaters and hockey sticks. These girls along with about half of the others from the upper years had taken to Shelley's call to arms with a will to roughly equal amounts of fear, confusion and delight for the males of the House. They were more than a touch wary of the hockey and lacrosse sticks being waved around with abandon but very happy with the short skirts and stockings that had become rather popular among the older girls.

This being a House quidditch match of course, even the boys were caught up in the madness of it all and a few brave souls among them had got up in school girl drag to add their own support. They were incredibly loud. They were incredibly proud. They were incredibly shocking. They were incredibly scary.

The battle cry that they belted out as they poured into their seats (which none of them intended to use) in an unruly mass and hung their flags and banners probably didn't help this impression much.

.

 _"We are the best, so screw the rest_

 _We do as we damn well please_

 _We are the toughs_

 _The Hufflepuffs_

 _Defenders of anarchy._

 _HUFFLEPUFFS!"_

.

"My goodness, Moonbeam I don't remember Hufflepuff House being quite so enthusiastic when I attended Hogwarts." Xenophilius tilted his head in obvious confusion. "And certainly not about quidditch."

Apparently, the other members of the small press corps dedicated to reporting the ins and outs of schools quidditch were of a similar opinion as confusion reigned in the box when the Badgers took their seats and the singing and chanting only increased in volume. For those who were aware of, or had been raised in, the muggle world it was reminiscent of a very well supported football match between two fierce, rival teams. Although the songs were rather less sweary than those that prevailed upon the terraces of Britain. Well, _most_ of them were anyway.

Luna correctly suspected the influence of her wild, little coven mates here. A sense which was confirmed beyond doubt seconds later when the 'Flying Badgers' took to the field to entrance music from Star Wars and a positive roar of anticipation. Only Shelley Potter would think that Darth Vader's theme (a dark lord if she had ever seen one) would be appropriate for a school sports match.

There was definitely no way she could miss the two witches she had come here to see either. They did make quite the spectacle as they powered across the front of the stands in their bright yellow quidditch jerseys, one with her snowy white hair streaming out behind her and the other in quite the most _awesome_ hat that she had ever seen.

Their warm up antics were hilarious too, since the two smallest chasers appeared to just adore living up to the name that their position gave them. And they even managed to drag the rest of their team into what amounted to an extended play fight on brooms. They were swooping, diving and cutting in and out of their team-mates with near reckless abandon, demonstrating their skill to all of those who cared to focus on them. If this was the way they warmed up, thought Luna, it promised a great deal of fun in the actual game.

Not so much for their opponents perhaps but definitely for her and a decent majority of the other people here watching today. As was evidenced by the stands shuddering to the synchronised jumping of more than a quarter of the school's population as they sang along to the dark, ominous melody thrumming insistently across the field.

Luna gave a shark-like grin and thought, 'Oh yeah, this is going to be _good'_.

.

The game itself, started in a frenzy of activity.

The instant that Madame Hooch blew her whistle that skill was suddenly evident to everyone as Artemis shot straight forward intercepting the newly released and rapidly rising quaffle. She didn't hold onto it for too long though, almost immediately flipping it straight back out of her hand and into the path of her fellow chaser who then set off in a diagonal and seemingly random trajectory. It was anything but.

Her swift, darting run to the goal zone caught everyone by surprise. Well everyone but her fellow Hufflepuff quidditch players, that is. Demetia and Artemis streaked after the 'girl-who-lived' getting in position to take up the quaffle should she be blocked while their beaters, Paul Haddock and Trevor Chippenham, affectionately referred to as 'Fish and Chips', launched a terrifying bludger assault.

This was more or less un-necessary as Shelley exploiting the shocked in-action of her competition, carved through the Snakes static defensive line. She jinked to left of the open mouthed keeper and tossed the quaffle into the air before executing a sharp turn to send the large, red ball sailing through the centre hoop with the tail of her broom. A giggling Artemis and only slightly more serious Demetia flew past her, each slapping one of her upheld palms for a celebratory 'high five'.

.

 _"You're shit. Eurgh!"_

.

The Hufflepuff spectators roared their derision at the Slytherin team and supporters alike, causing their own beaters, who were always appreciative of a good prank, to nearly fall off their brooms laughing. A barked command from their captain, however, got them back into a more appropriate frame of mind for the game. Nobody who didn't have a death wish was anything but serious around Demetia Gently when the business of her beloved sport was involved.

They shut up and buckled down to their task, bats swinging furiously, as Artemis stole the quaffle once more and settled herself into the tip of their well honed 'spear' chaser formation.

It took a good ten minutes for the Snakes to get over their shock at the speed and ferocity of the Badgers chasers and their wild but brilliant flying, meaning that they were now trailing the yellow garbed team by ninety points. They had only scored _one_ measly goal to their opponents ten. It riled them up and it forced a change in tactics.

Witches were not permitted in the ranks of the Slytherin quidditch squad for the precise reason that they were traditionally a 'power' team, preferring brute force over skill. And to be fair to them, it usually worked.

Usually, but not today.

Today their opposition were fully prepared for it and were only surprised that it had taken as long as it had for them to react so predictably. So when the bludgers began to fly in earnest and large bodies of the Snakes began to close in, the Flying Badgers shifted their formation with practised ease to face the new threat. Which the idiots in green failed to notice. Just as they failed to notice the feral grins that suddenly appeared on the faces of the, supposedly weak, Hufflepuff team.

.

Luna stilled her mind, took a deep breath and concentrated on the figure in the yellow and black top hat. And suddenly she was 'on board' with the 'girl-who-lived', although she seemed to have missed the target a bit as she was viewing things from a few inches above Shelley. And bouncing around quite a lot too. Oh Merlin's pants, she was in the sunflower. Which was very pretty and all, but did not exactly make for a stable viewing platform.

She didn't know _how_ she was able to do this only that she could. She didn't know whether it was an inherited skill or something that was a by-product of her empathy with the colourful, magical flow that filled her world and surrounded her. But Luna was a practical girl (in some ways at least) and recognised it as a useful tool so she didn't ask too many questions.

She was sure that the insanely smart and ultra inquisitive Shelley Potter would do that part of it ad nauseam when they discussed it in the future. As she knew that they would be doing just that.

The images in her mind wavered slightly and Luna was forced to renew and re-double her concentration levels to sharpen up and get back from her own thoughts to her 'ride'. She did so just in time to see her mad coven mate holding out the quaffle to a confused looking boy wearing Slytherin green. Luna ginned in her head. She could tell that this was going to be _awesome_.

"No, really, come on and take it."

Marcus Flint was very large and very stupid and thought that witches were too frail and silly to play 'the beautiful game' and had no place on the quidditch field so was not at all suspicious of her. Given what the grinning, smirking lunatic in the insane hat had done to some of his peers over the last month or two, he really should have been.

"Actually, I've changed my mind ... you can't touch this."

She pulled it away from the large boy at the last second as Flint's clumsy attempt at a grab unbalanced him and made him drop his upper body to regain control of his broom. Luckily for him too, since Artemis whizzed past an inch from his head, the bristles of her own broom brushing the back of his neck. Then he sat up again, scowled and began to advance on the giggling Shelley.

"Stop."

Shelley held out her palm in front of her once she deemed the Slytherin to be back in the correct position for her next trick. Surprisingly for both of them, he actually did so, although seemingly more out of a well trained response to obey any and all orders than of his own accord.

"Hammer time!"

The bludger that had been trailing Artemis slammed into Flint's unprotected left side like a freight train, sending the unfortunate boy tumbling from his broom, screaming in fear and agony. He hit the very solid ground forty feet below with an equally solid thump. Marcus hadn't exactly made a lot of friends in his time at Hogwarts and even his own House mates or the professors hadn't bothered to cast a cushioning charm.

Shelley wasn't around to see that as she had taken advantage of everyone else watching the unfortunate Flint's unintentional swan-dive to thread her way through the bodies, round the keeper and score again. Since she was still riding shotgun neither did Luna, not that she would given up her ride to so. With all the ducking, rolling, sharp turns and dives it was very exciting. If a little ... umm... nauseating. Oh dear.

She tasted bile. It was alright when Shelley was sat still but since the girl was a chaser that didn't exactly happen very often. Regretfully Luna left her mental perch atop the beautiful witch's beautiful hat and retreated back to her own mind.

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 _"We're Hufflepuff,_

 _We're. Gonna. Score. One. More. Than. You._

 _BADGERS!"_

.

Oh what a good time to come back. She loved the way that her future House mates had not stopped singing for the entire game and was highly amused by their lyrics that were clearly 'adapted' to suit. The one that had just started was particularly good, although she was a little confused as to what a 'vindaloo' was and why she should love it. Rightly assuming that it was a muggle thing, Luna decided to ask Shelley about it later that evening. Assuming that everything went to plan, of course.

.

Far above the fray, Cedric Diggory watched the mayhem below with a shudder, very glad that he was up here and out of harm's way. The war going on down there was positively vicious. And the most vicious of all weren't the great, hulking Slytherin players, or even his own, overly enthusiastic captain, but the two smallest players on the pitch.

There was biting, butting, blocking and elbowing going on down there and Cedric swore blind that he even saw the flash of a blade in young Shelley Potter's hand at one point. Most of what was going on wasn't against the rather loose rules and those that would have resulted in a foul were carefully shielded from the hawk-eyed Madame Hooch by their partners in crime.

They were a pair of absolute hellions. Demons from beyond the veil.

Of course, them being such meant that he wasn't about to question their behaviour, which went against his very strong sense of fair play and thus which he found more than a touch abhorrent, quite honestly. While he was not exactly a Mensa candidate, Shelley Potter probably was and he wasn't stupid enough to voice his concerns for fear of swift and terrible reprisals from her brilliant, eccentric and devious mind.

He had heard the rumours and was now seeing for himself how poorly getting on her bad side ended for people. The once feared Slytherin quidditch team, famed for their brutal thuggery, were now a tattered, battered, shadow of their former selves. Because of _her_. Because of _them_.

The psychotic witch and her white wolf. And, of course, their gang of hard eyed, little, skirt wearing, monsters who were baying from the stands and egging them on to ever greater acts of ruthlessness.

The Badger's Sett had become an even more fun place to be than usual since the arrival of their new batch of first years and Shelley Potter in particular. Her genius seemed to know no bounds and the rumours of the wonderful goings on in the girls dormitories were fully vindicated when all sorts of strange, but fantastic, muggle technology began to appear in the common room. Of course, those _other_ rumours still persisted, the less fun ones, which caused him some moral difficulties.

However, the entire House had benefitted from Shelley's generosity of her time, knowledge and money, prompted no doubt by her friends, and he wasn't about to rock the boat and spoil it for everyone. He was a Hufflepuff and loyal to all the members of his House, no matter how scary and psychotic they were. Also he _really_ didn't want to get his Buffy the Vampire Slayer priviledges revoked.

The mere thought of the beautiful and talented Alyson Hannigan caused a weird, dreamy smile to form on his face which was only lost when he spotted a flash of gold near the stands fifteen minutes later. Cedric was all business now as he glanced over at his clueless, Slytherin adversary and made a fast plan for his dive to victory and status as a Hufflepuff hero.

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Aurora Sinistra was having fun. Watching quidditch. Something that she never thought would happen in a million years.

A lot of it had to do with her two Sunday breakfast companions and proteges who were currently whizzing about on the matched pair of Comet Two Sixty brooms that she had acquired for their use. Although she still technically owned them, neatly circumventing the school's rules about first years not having broomsticks.

It had taken quite some time and effort to persuade the two girls to accept her gift but she thought that every second of that time and every knut that she had spent had been richly rewarded. The smile on her face was huge as she watched them spin their own form of chaotic magic, causing total and utter mayhem on the field of play.

Feeling encouraged by their brilliant display and her small part in it, Aurora lifted her voice and began another round of the 'Hufflepuff Chant' which was quickly taken up by her neighbours. They considered her an honorary Badger by now, knowing what she had done for their team, and they followed her lead with a great deal of fervour and enthusiasm.

Her smooth, dark, good looks only added to the enthusiasm. Particularly from the pink haired witch who was edging ever closer to her in the hopes that her clumsiness and the raucous crowd's movements might result in her getting a bit of a feel up of the beautiful professor. Completely by accident, of course.

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"Oh look Daddy, he's seen the snitch."

Luna squealed in unrestrained excitement as Shelley and Artemis also appeared to notice their team-mate's sudden movement and peeled away from their current, very dazed and confused (and suddenly very grateful) opposite numbers. They looped around, pointed their brooms at the ground and formed up on either side of Cedric to join in his thrilling, near vertical dive.

The method in their madness then became apparent as the two small chasers blocked for him, heading off bludgers and other players as they raced to intercept Cedric and put him off of his stroke. And what had been a reasonably fair match, within the strange rules of the game, now became an all out bloody, brawl as the remaining Badgers set to holding back the pack of angry Slytherins heading for their seeker.

Both Shelley and Artemis took more than a few solid hits as they shadowed the totally focused Cedric but they were not about to abandon their charge. They gritted their teeth, took their lumps and kept their positions as the blonde boy followed the flight of the tiny, golden ball.

With this stalwart and self-sacrificing defence, only one of the large, green armoured Snakes got through the line and even he missed the bodycheck that he had been attempting due to a certain true wolf raking him across the face with her claws. The extremely scared (and indeed, scarred) Mister Montague would be spending the next few days in the infirmary trying to get a very confused Madame Pomfrey to give him wolfsbane.

His miss was close enough, however, to make Diggory shift ever so slightly to his right and the miss the golden snitch with his glove. He didn't miss it entirely though.

The worried Luna had her fist jammed in her mouth and was biting down hard enough to leave marks as the coughing Hufflepuff seeker was guided to the ground by his two, bruised, but still flying, protectresses. When they hit the grass, Shelley jumped from her bristly steed, moved behind the third year boy and delivered a stinging slap to his back that reverberated around the stadium.

Something shiny shot from the boy's mouth at great speed and smacked into his hand to create an answering echo. He gave one last wracking cough and then started to laugh like a madman as he saw the object weakly fluttering on it's crumpled wings, lying in his hand. Diggory had the battered and saliva covered snitch clasped in his glove and the choking and gagging and laughing morphed into a grinning yell of triumph as held the little golden ball above his head.

Hufflepuff had won!

And by a huge margin.

Everyone in the stands spent a few moments staring in shocked surprise at the landslide victory for the Badgers. Four hundred and eighty to thirty. It was unheard of. And then three quarters of them exploded into action.

Teachers and press members alike were jostled and pushed aside as the howling, cheering mass of students raced down the steep stairs to descend upon their new sporting heroes and heroines.

.

By the time the Badgers score had hit three hundred to the Snakes meagre thirty Aurora Sinistra was almost totally hoarse and had been reduced to shouting rather than singing. Since everyone else in their rowdy section of the stands was in the same boat as her it didn't really matter. All that mattered was that they made a significant amount of noise to support and encourage their brave flyers. A lot of noise.

That noise only increased in it's volume and urgency when, a few minutes and three more Hufflepuff goals later, they saw their new seeker drop from the sky like a stone. And, following a brief chase and struggle when he emerged victorious with the snitch in his hand, utter mayhem reigned in the tightly packed stands.

The dark skinned Astronomy professor was subject to that mayhem when she felt herself being swept up into a fierce embrace by a pair of strong arms and _thoroughly_ kissed. Which she was _thoroughly_ enjoying and lost herself to entirely without a moment's thought as to who could have been doing the aforementioned kissing.

It took her and her passionate assailant quite some time to remember just how public their 'heat of the moment' snog was and pull back from each other's embrace. By which time, inevitably, they were being whistled at and cheered on by a good proportion of those around. A group which unfortunately included a tight gaggle of smirking, leering and grinning first years. Shelley and Artemis were going to ribbing her about this for the rest of the school year, she had no doubt.

As she sighed and stepped back (somewhat reluctantly), Aurora tried to ignore the little monsters and took her first look at the person whose tonsils she had been so recently inspecting with her tongue. Her eyes travelled up from shiny, ox-blood Doctor Marten boots over shapely legs encased in opaque, black stockings and the _very_ short skirt to the tight, light jumper. Where she stopped to appreciate the straining fabric stretched tightly across a magnificent pair of enticing breasts.

It took a vast amount of willpower for her to move her head and continue the upward journey of her gaze but eventually Aurora was staring into the face of her recent unknown and unintentional paramour. The very young face and the very pink, very recognisable and very tousled hair of one Nymphadora Tonks. Her _student_ Nymphadora Tonks. She watched dumbstruck, partly in horror, partly in wholly inappropriate lust, as a shit-eating grin spread across the rather bruised lips of her seventeen year old (and thank-you Merlin for _that_ small mercy) _student_.

Oh bugger. What had she gone and done now?

"Wotcher prof. Having fun?"

Aurora Sinistra's head dropped into her hands and she tried desperately to block out the laughter that started out as a whisper but quickly rose to a veritable cacophony of howling cat-calls. She didn't even notice when those same, strong arms wrapped her up in a hug and half led, half carried her unresisting form to the planned party in the Badgers basement lair.

.

On the other side of the pitch from this little drama, Luna Lovegood was forcing her way through the thinning crowd with stern determination to intercept her target. She found him still seated with his senior staff and after some judicious and well hidden curses performed on her fellow 'gentlemen' of the press, ensured that she was the first to reach him to ask for an interview.

He very stupidly gave his trademarked, twinkly eyed smile and agreed.

The dicta-quill quivered, poised in anticipation.

"I'm here with Hogwarts headmaster, Albus Dumbledore and House Heads for Slytherin and Hufflepuff, Professors Severus Snape and Pomona Sprout."

She paused and gave the amused adults a coy, little smile before starting her 'interview' properly.

"Headmaster, that was a very exciting match from the two teams today did you enjoy it as much as the many spectators seemed to?"

"Very much so, although I will admit that games involving my old Alma Mater, Gryffindor, have a special place in my heart. Quidditch at Hogwarts has always been well supported Miss Lovegood and I think that you can see for yourself why our staff and students are so enthusiastic about it when you see a game like the one we had today."

"Indeed I do sir, and so do many others I'm sure. In fact, I overheard a couple of the scouts for the National League remarking on the particularly impressive performances of both Miss Potter and Miss Amarok." Luna turned to Snape with a barely repressed grin. "Do you think that was the reason that your team was so thoroughly trounced today professor Snape?"

He glared at the beatifically smiling girl while grinding out a rather bad tempered 'No comment' which she dutifully checked had been properly recorded in her notes by her dicta-quill.

"Hmmm. Perhaps we should turn to Professor Sprout then. How do you think your two debutantes performed today, superbly or just moderately brilliant?"

"Well I have been attending some of the practices ... " More like standing guard with Aurora Sinistra to prevent any spying on her new secret weapons really. "... so I wasn't surprised having seen just how skilled my little Badgers are on brooms and how quickly they picked up the game. Amazing considering that neither of them had even heard of quidditch before they came here. I must also congratulate our team captain, Miss Gently, for bringing, not only Potter and Amarok, but also our new seeker, Cedric Diggory, so far in such a short time."

"Yes, your chasers did work rather well together didn't they, I heard the Harpies scout being most complimentary about their teamwork and their ... _forceful_ tactics against larger and more experienced opponents."

Professor Sprout actually winked at the surprised blonde as she smirked and snorted in amusement.

"Not news to me dear, they do make a quite terrifying threesome don't they. And I must approve of your wording, they are indeed, _forceful_."

Luna's next question died on her lips and her face went bright red at the word 'threesome' and Albus took the opportunity to step in before the interview went in a direction that he didn't want it to.

"I was more surprised by the fervour of our young ... and not so young ... Hufflepuffs in support of their team. It was most entertaining."

The old man tipped a twinkly eyed wink to his Herbology Mistress which masked his true feelings. Actually he had been quite upset by their behaviour, especially the risque wording that some of the more clever but less mature minds of Hufflepuff House had come up with. He was, however, the consummate politician and as such knew how to behave in front of a member of the press (however odd that member may be) so kept his anger and disdain tightly bottled up, instead giving another carefully neutral answer to the quirky, blonde reporter.

The Lovegood girl was definitely a bit ... _peculiar_ ... but she was also incredibly sweet and Albus Dumbledore was soon following her down the rabbit hole of her choosing, discussing all kinds of things entirely unrelated to quidditch. Things like charms and transfiguration techniques that would be taught in her first year of school next September. Things that she seemed to know about and understand perfectly well. He was rather impressed by her.

And so, just as Luna had planned, he let down his guard and turned on the charm, clearly hoping for an article which painted the school, but more importantly _him_ , in the best possible light. He was sucked in, spun around and totally out manipulated by the little girl with the big silver eyes until he would have agreed to anything she said.

And then he discovered to his consternation that he had.

She had somehow, in the course of their conversation managed to get him to offer her early entry to Hogwarts. Today, in fact. How in Merlin's soiled underpants had she done that, he wondered while shaking his head. Ah well nothing to be done now except roll with the situation and lay down some conditions of his own.

"Very well, Miss Lovegood, I'm not averse to your request since you turned eleven at the end of September and we're not too far into the school year just yet but there will be standards that you will have to meet. Let's make a deal shall we."

She looked up at him all bright eyed and nodded earnestly and eagerly.

"If you can pass the end of term exams with no less than an 'Exceeds Expectations' in all subjects then you will be properly inducted for the coming term in the new year."

This was more than even Luna had hoped for and certainly more than she had expected. She was now bouncing around in sheer delight after having had her scheme work out so perfectly and pulled both the headmaster and professor Sprout over to her daddy to seal the deal. He took _far_ less time to break and allow his beloved daughter to attend Hogwarts for the rest of the year on a trial basis. Although this may have been because she had already told him of her plans the day before and he was much more prepared for the conversation.

"Why didn't you stop me Pomona?"

"I tried to Albus." The portly witch watched the blonde, human dynamo hopping around like a lunatic and reminding her uncomfortably of certain of her 'Hufflepuff Hooligans'. "Trust me, I _really_ tried."

Luckily for her continuing sanity, Pomona Sprout never heard Luna's final comment or saw her rubbing her hands together as she cackled evilly. No, instead she made the monumental mistake of offering up the Hufflepuff dorms for her stay to the girl who was now staring up at her with hands folded demurely and a wide, innocent smile on her sweet face.

"I love it when a plan comes together."

.

The party in the Hufflepuff common room was epic. It was the most fun that most of them could remember having in a very long time. They were toasting their heroic team of 'Flying Badgers' for their brilliant and brutal destruction of the Slytherin thugs in gallons of butterbeer and pumpkin juice. The karaoke machine was fired up and the party had just really started to swing when they were brought up short by a familiar voice.

"Badgers, listen up!"

Pomona Sprout's voice cut across even the tumultuous noise of the raucous party that was in mid swing. The music was silenced (Much to Susan's disgust) and all faces turned to their Head of House and the odd looking girl with the dirty blonde hair that was stood next to her.

"This is Miss Lovegood. At her own request, she will be joining our first year classes until, at least, the Christmas break and hopefully beyond. I expect you all to assist her in her endeavours as well as making her welcome amongst us and treating her as one of our own for as long as she is here."

Pomona had never been more proud of her House. Their new first years out-studied the Ravenclaws, out-schemed the Slytherins and out-partied the Gryffindors, but it was here, in their treatment of a small, lonely new girl that they showed their true colours. If you cut any one of them in half (not that she ever would) they would be yellow and black through and through. Hufflepuffs at their very best.

Luna Lovegood was dragged off by the chattering, excited first years and inducted into the mysteries of muggle music, television and the internet, all the while stealing furtive glances at her happy and helpful coven mates. She was in Heaven.

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 **Reviews are our cookies and you wouldn't want us starve now would you. Seriously though the feedback would be very helpful on this one guys so do let us know how we're doing with it, and I promise that I will try and answer all of your questions. Of which I am sure there will be many.**

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 **DtR xx.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Nearly back on track with updates and next chapter is actually going to be early, for once. Yay us!**

 **This was a fun one to write for us and we hope that you enjoy it as much as we did. The Hufflepuff Hooligans versus a cocking great troll. I wonder who's going to win?**

 **Big love to the mighty Tenzo51 without whom this story wouldn't have even happened, let alone be anywhere near as good as it is.** **Co-conspirator and Beta extroadinaire.**

 **Another reading recommendation for you lovely people today (I'm thinking of making this a regular thing now). Normally I would push you towards something fun but woefully under-supported but this one is pretty well known anyway.**

 **Iris Potter and the Goblet's Surprise by Autumn Souls. - If you like snarky, fun and powerful femHarry then this fic is a 'must read' and one of my personal favourites. Quite a serious piece for all that but really,** _ **really**_ **good.**

 **I'm not JKR and I don't make any money from this. Which is a bit of a shame.**

 **DtR xx.**

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 **The Excellent Adventure of a Wolf, a Loony and a Very Bored Heroine.**

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 **9\. Troll Bait.**

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Shelley Potter had an odd relationship with the festival of Halloween.

On the one hand it was the day when she had been orphaned, her birth parents being murdered by the violent egomaniac and all around Dark wizard, Lord Voldemort. On the other hand, Daddy Vernon, Aunt 'Tunie and Dudders had always gone out of their way to ensure that they gave Shelley whatever she needed to be happy on All Hallows e'en. Whether it was comfort and reassurance or space to be on her own with her thoughts or simply a bucket full of chocolate, the Dursleys had always let their little 'princess' decide for herself.

It was lovely ... but it wasn't love ... at least, not on her part, anyway.

They were simply useful to her. The Dursley family, of which she was considered a full and important part, granted Shelley an air of normalcy. An appearance of being civilised and conventional, despite her strange mannerisms, behaviour and oddly bright clothing choices.

She would admit to being pleased when they did something particularly nice (or helpful) for her but was equally annoyed when they became overly affectionate towards her. Shelley's Housemates were, as professor Sprout had suggested they would be, almost exactly like her family in that regard, in that she found them just as sweet and occasionally just as frustrating.

Speaking of frustrations, she had more than a few of those at the moment. The seven weeks or so since she had verbally bitch slapped old, grandpa Gandalf had passed with none of her 'suggestions' being acted upon. Not one. The pompous, self-righteous, old git had totally ignored her brilliantly, reasoned arguments and extremely helpful advice. Honestly, it was like he didn't _want_ to be gifted with such gems from her awesome and towering intellect.

History was still fairly interesting (to her at least) but the twosome of terrible teachers remained in place and completely unrestrained in their practices of either butchering their subject (Quirrell), or harassing and belittling their students (Snape). In fact, if anything, they had got worse. In DADA the turbaned idiot had seemed to realise that he was on Shelley's ever growing 'shit list', she really wasn't good at suffering fools, and was now avoiding looking at her entirely. Snape, on the other hand, while clearly also being aware of her feelings towards him and his classroom methods, was actually going out of his way to antagonise her even further.

This had turned out to be a very silly mistake on his part.

Shelley and her 'magnificent seven' of Hufflepuff Hooligans had made his life an absolute, living hell since she realised that he wasn't going to change. In the last six weeks all of Snape's precious, private, potions ingredients had either been mysteriously mis-placed or mis-labelled themselves with some spectacularly funny and dangerous results. It was also not uncommon for him to be seen stalking, grim-faced, through the halls and passageways in bright pink robes or with his hair _somehow_ molded and stuck up into various amusing punk or overly feminine styles. The perm was the students' favourite to date.

Indeed, they were _so_ creatively vindictive in their 'pranking' that they found themselves being congratulated (privately of course) by the twins of terror themselves. Fred and George Weasley had found themselves unexpectedly impressed with the little Badgers. Impressed enough to make an offer of alliance and share products and ideas with the girls, and so revealing their intelligence to Shelley by not wishing to risk getting involved in a prank war with someone like her.

They may have been less impressed if they had known that she didn't really enjoy pranking like they did. Shelley deemed it necessary to enact vengeance upon Snape and so she attacked the things that he cared about most, his gloomy, grave demeanour and his reputation as a brilliant potioneer. The more that they messed with him, the angrier he got and the angrier he got the more focus he lost when concocting his brews. That was when explosive burns began to appear on his face and hands as well.

It didn't give her any pleasure (Well not much pleasure anyway) to do these things to her professor but he had broken the sacred trust that should exist between teacher and pupil so he had to be punished. She would correct his poor behaviour if it killed ... well _him_ actually. Shelley didn't really enjoy doing it and in fact the necessity of doing so annoyed her no end since she could have been focusing her considerable talents on _far_ more important things.

There were other things that had caused her slight annoyance, of course. Like her continuing failure to either open the ancient, black, book (that she had correctly guessed was a grimoire) that Shelley had picked up from her trust vault or to create her, dearly wished for, zombie cat. She did not take failure well and many of her House-mates saw the true face of the 'girl-who-lived' for the first time. Word got around pretty quickly after one of her temper tantrums put a hapless, sixth year, prefect in the infirmary overnight and all effort was made to either keep her happy or avoid her like the plague.

The only one who hadn't been causing her any problems so far was Artemis Amarok. The two of them had formed an almost instantaneous bond and become so close that they were now almost never seen apart from one another. Which meant that Hannah Abbott was, likewise, always nearby. Not that she begrudged her new and best friend that closeness.

They were _awfully_ cute together. Their total and utter cluelessness just made it all the more so. Shelley had never smiled so much as she had in the last two months. A good part of those smiles were to do with her plans for ... _enhancing_ Hannah's small teddy bear, Mister Fuzzles, that the girl carried around in her book bag, but still, she was smiling.

Quidditch had helped too, with the rest of the team accepting her and Arte' quickly and completely. Especially after seeing their skill and enthusiasm on their borrowed brooms at the first of the year's practice sessions. A practice session that had also been attended by the woman who had lent them those brooms and spent every Sunday morning giving them tea and toast and sharing her Astronomy expertise and experience with them. Aurora Sinistra had become a 'family favourite' with the whole team and indeed, the entire House.

And then, last night, Luna Lovegood had exploded into her life and it looked like genuine smiles were going to become a regular thing for Shelley Potter.

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Shelley had awoken suddenly and in something of a panic on the morning after her extremely brilliant and ultimately victorious performance in her first quidditch match. This was because she was being held in the vise-like grip as someone clamped onto her like a small, human limpet. A very naked someone. A very naked someone who was now propped up on her elbows and staring at her with those overly large, expressive and slightly protruding, grey eyes.

"Good morning Shelley Potter."

Ah yes, Luna Lovegood. The girl who was obsessed with her. So much so that she had managed to evade all attempts to set her up in her own bed and, grinning happily, jumped in with the surprised Shelley.

"Good morning Luna." In her most controlled voice Shelley asked. "May I inquire as to why you're not wearing the pajamas I gave you?"

"You don't wear clothes to bed, silly."

"You mean _you_ don't wear clothes to bed."

"Nor should you Shelley Potter, it's very unhealthy and it attracts all kinds of nasties like pootlefuffs and beleshans."

Bed-bugs she had heard of but pootlefuffs and beleshans?

"You think I'm crazy, don't you? That's okay everybody does."

The smallest touch of almost un-noticeable sadness in the other girl's voice as she spoke whilst beaming a blinding and entirely fake smile, woke something very protective in Shelley. Where normally she wouldn't have responded to such a situation, a disturbingly unfamiliar and emotional response popped into her head and out of her mouth before she had even realised that it had happened.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret Luna Lovegood. _All_ of the best people are crazy."

And that was all it took. The deceptively cute, dirty blonde, mistress of mayhem was unleashed upon the world in general and Shelley Potter in particular as she chased her brilliant coven mate all over the girls' section of the dorms with tickle fingers extended and a mad gleam in her eye.

.

The Hufflepuff first years awoke to the very different and disturbing sight of Shelley Potter giggling while being seemingly assaulted by a dirty blonde in a far too large bathrobe (that had been thrown over her by one of the more awake prefects as she ran past, hot the heels of her all too apparent girl-crush). The Shelley that they knew was always cool and composed, always had a tight hold on her emotions and she certainly didn't ... _giggle_. Well not unless she was planning one of her night-time 'outings' which inevitably ended in humiliation of those who continued to bully the younger students.

Knowing how controlled and together the scary Miss Potter was, they were, frankly, astonished that such behaviour was being allowed ... and, what appeared to be ... encouraged. Disturbing as it was, thankfully, that didn't make it any less funny or cute and smiles soon followed. Especially when the black haired prodigy was taken to the floor and incapacitated by her even smaller assailant.

"Say you're my Belly."

"Get off me, you spaz."

"Not until you say it."

It was probably a mistake to do it but, judging by the firm set of Luna's jaw, Shelley really didn't have much of a choice right now. Not if she wanted to be allowed up so that they could get some food anyway. It turned out that Luna Lovegood, for such a tiny little thing, was freakishly strong. She gave in with a resigned sigh.

"I'm your Belly."

"Damn skippy you are." The diminutive, blonde, lunatic jumped off of her captive and patted her non-existent stomach, that had chosen this particular moment to growl. "What's for breakfast, Belly-Boo?"

Shelley's head dropped to her chest as she considered her new nick-name. Yep, definitely a mistake.

Things didn't improve any at breakfast when the students were informed that they would be having a day free from classes in honour of the Halloween festivities taking place that night. Oh, everyone else thought that it was great, especially those who would be missing their weekly torture session with Slimy Snape, but Shelley Potter was _not_ like everyone else. She was disappointed that a day that could have been spent in acquiring knowledge from professors, however crap they might be, was going to be wasted in lazing about and frivolous pursuits.

These thoughts persisted until Artemis pointed out that the only other person looking like somebody had just burst their favourite balloon was Hermione Granger at the Gryffindor table. Not wanting to be associated, in any way, with the girl that they had rather unkindly dubbed 'Captain Cavegirl' due to her prodigiously bushy hair and a tendency to grunt at any interruptions to her reading, Shelley straightened up and smiled. A little too quickly and in a way that most of her House-mates cringe slightly, but it was a start.

The suggestion from professor Sprout that she could hold one of her special 'talks' in the common room improved her mood much more effectively, although it did produce a bit of groaning from some of the boys. And those, like Cedric, who had been looking forward to watching some more of those interesting and informative (and fun) televisual shows that the muggles made about vampire slayers and quirky, beautiful, redheaded witches.

.

A short hour later, the decidedly black haired witch who had caused all of this comment was sat in a comfortable looking, wing backed chair in the common room, surrounded by her House-mates. Most of them were from the first three grades although there were many from the upper years too, all hanging on her every word as she gave one of her impromptu lectures on the theory of magic.

Their House Head looked on from her office, the door to which she had left strategically open.

It was only when you saw her like this that you realised just how special Shelley Potter really was.

"Magic, as we know it, is made up of three component parts, the first two of which are 'power' and 'control', or if you prefer, intent and understanding."

Pomona had, following Miss Potter's dressing down of the headmaster, gone over the syllabus for the school at which she taught and was rather embarrassed to discover that the girl was right. They dumped these children into the deep end of the wizarding world to sink or swim and didn't seem to care which one they did. An 'introduction' to Wizarding Britain seemed to be the very least that should be offered at Europe's so called premier educational institution.

That they didn't was, frankly, scandalous. It was now uncomfortably obvious that Hogwarts school was actually more than a small part responsible for the continuation of the hostility between the purebloods and the muggle born and raised. That was why Shelley's tutoring sessions in the Hufflepuff common room were so well attended and so vitally important.

She didn't care who your parents were, how much money they did or didn't have or how much you already knew. If you wanted to learn and showed up at one of her 'classes' then she would teach you what she knew. Which was a lot.

"The intent is easy enough to explain, it is simply your will to make whatever spell you are attempting, happen. The stronger your will, the more you want it, the more chance you have of success and the stronger it will be. In other words ..."

"Power."

"Good Hannah, yes. Then you need to understand the spell that you're attempting to perform, even if it's only at the most basic level of memorising the wand movements and the incantation. It would be better if you could have a good grasp of the arithmantic principles that built the spell, of course, but I understand that not everyone has the capacity to do that."

"So the intent is the power and the understanding is the control?"

"Exactly Neville. It's like using a hammer."

Shelley looked at the confused faces of the purebloods in the audience and decided that further explanation was necessary.

"If I grip the hammer at the very end, I can drive a nail in one hit ... or I can miss completely and break my thumb instead ... and if I hold it near the head I guarantee that I hit it without incident or injury ... but it takes more strikes. Power and control. You see?"

"So which is best?"

"Neither. You need to find the third component. Balance."

"Huh?"

"What she's saying is that you can have all the intent in the world but if you don't understand the spell you're casting then it will be weaker than another person's attempt. If that other person doesn't believe in it as strongly as you but has a significantly better understanding of the spell they will more than likely be more effective with it. They have achieved a better balance ... and, therefore, their spell will be stronger."

Everyone in the room was staring at Luna Lovegood with confusion. Even on their brief acquaintance with her, virtually the entire House of the Badgers were of the firm belief that she was even more insane than Shelley Potter but without her vast and devious reserves of intelligence. Hearing such a clever, well thought out summation of Shelley's impromptu 'lesson' without any of her usual references to impossible creatures, therefore, had them blinking hard and starting to reconsider her talents.

Even Shelley was looking at her strangely but she was more thinking that this situation was clearly not something that Luna wanted. She appeared to want to be thought of as the cute and weird odd-ball of Hufflepuff for whatever passed in the blonde's somewhat erratic brain as reasons. To her impressed delight, the girl in question then proceeded to dis-arm them all with the consummate ease of the gifted and well practised arch manipulator that she so clearly was.

"And having more Nargles helps, obviously."

The darkly, devious smile that lit up Shelley's face at her final assertion was in stark contrast to the rest of her House-mates good natured chuckling and eye rolling. Luna Lovegood basked in it's chilly glow with a spaced out, dreamy look on her angelic face.

.

That evening's highly enjoyable Halloween celebrations were cut abruptly short by the appearance their hated and much ridiculed DADA teacher, Quirinus Quirrell, and his frightened, stammered out statement.

"Tr ... toll in the dungeons. Just th ... thought you sh ... should know."

And with that the worst professor currently at Hogwarts did a comedy faint that was so transparently fake that it provoked more eye rolling than concern. Especially from amongst a certain group of Hufflepuff first years. One of whom actually snorted back a laugh. Another decided to start jumping about and squealing.

"Ooh, I want to see the troll." Luna gazed manically up at the 'girl-who-lived' with shining eyes as she tried out the cute manipulations that worked so well on her father. "Can we Belly ... _please_. can we, can we, can we?"

"We should probably go and find Granger anyway. I haven't seen her around today and you just know that she's unlucky enough to end up getting trapped by a rampaging troll. That way Lu' gets to see her troll and we keep Captain Cavegirl safe ... and maybe even in our debt."

Artemis made a fair point, she supposed. Over the last two months the Gryffindor library queen had always seemed to be sporting some kind of injury, many (but not all) of which were self inflicted due to the girl's own carelessness. Walking around a castle filled to the brim with hard and sharp objects with your head buried in some book or other wasn't really conducive to staying healthy and bruise free. Especially if you didn't have anyone who cared enough about you to prevent you from walking in to them.

"She'll be fine. She's probably just fallen asleep in the library again."

Shelley didn't believe that for a moment. If anyone was going to get cornered and battered by the castle's unexpected visitor, it was the totally friendless and unfortunate Granger. Not that she cared overly much since the girl was as annoying as shit and she didn't have any qualms about leaving her to her fate but her friends weren't as free from those pesky moral concerns as she was. A fact which they now clearly demonstrated.

"You're _really_ going to let her get beaten into a bloody smear by a hulking, great troll?"

Hannah turned those big, wet, blue eyes that seemed to reduce her true wolf friend to an uncharacteristic puddle of mush onto Shelley and she too felt her resistance start to crumble. That girl was an absolute menace. Still, at least she was _their_ menace that could hopefully be let loose on those who wouldn't be cowed by her and Arte's more blunt and forceful approach to problems. The hard cases always faltered in the presence of such unabashedly, adorable cuteness. She should know.

It took them a while but through some incredibly unfair and under-handed means, which she was secretly very proud of them for employing, even if it was against her, Shelley finally capitulated to their pleading. Threats she was powerful enough to ignore, reason she could argue against but tears were her Kryptonite. And unfortunately for her, all three of these girls had figured that out in very short order.

" _Fi-i-ine._ "

After a long, drawn out and overly dramatic sigh, Shelley trudged resignedly after her 'crew' as they slipped away from their House-mates and headed stealthily away, unseen and unheard for the main doors. Sometimes this having friends business just really sucked, she thought as they followed the true wolf's super sensitive nose up the grand staircase on into the depths of the ancient castle.

.

Three girls and a partially transformed wolf stood in the doorway to one of the first floor, communal bathrooms looking up in awe at possibly the ugliest being that any of them had ever seen. Granger didn't seem to be overly struck on his looks either if the way that she was curled up crying against the back wall was anything to go by. None of them would blame her for that though. That loincloth that the twelve foot tall, mountain troll was _nearly_ wearing hardly covered a thing.

No matter how much they might wish that it did.

Artemis was her usual articulate self when faced with such a sight.

"It looks like someone's stuck a bunch of Hagrid's rock cakes together with dog shit and then thrown up all over it."

"Smells like it too."

Hannah's hand was clamped firmly over her mouth and nose muffling her response to the point of almost incomprehensible nonsense. None of them really blamed her for it though and they all got what she meant. The stench was truly terrible.

The troll turned and stared at the newly arrived interlopers stupidly. Very stupidly. Higher brain function and rational thinking were clearly not things that intruded into the massive creature's very small brain. His motivation seemed to be more; 'See ... club ... kill', than anything more conciliatory or peaceful when it registered a threat. However small and insignificant that threat might appear to be.

Not that these three girls and their wolf _weren't_ a threat, of course but it must have been quite confusing for the intellectually challenged beast. Three small girls and sort of half wolf thing of inconsequential size and stature were not normally considered threatening beings to a fully grown, mountain troll but he was actually correct to be suspicious of them this time. For possibly the first and definitely the _last_ time in his life, he was right in his thinking.

With this in what constituted his mind, the troll's expression went swiftly from confused and stupid to angry and he roared at the intruders, covering them in bad breath and spittle as he pulled his huge club clear from the big, ragged hole in the wall. A hole that was less than a foot from the, still frozen, and hysterically screaming Hermione Granger. All of the Hufflepuff Hooligans could see the terror written large in their annoying year-mate's face which seemed to have brought all of her, admittedly fairly impressive, cognitive thought processes to a screeching halt.

Shelley sighed again and gestured to the girl that others laughingly referred to as her rival.

"Han, could you and wolfy kindly retrieve Captain Cavegirl while we distract the big boy please."

Shelley drew her wand from her hair and hit him in the knee with the same dark, piercing hex that she had used on those Slytherin thugs at the beginning of term, expecting similarly debilitating results. Instead, nothing happened. Well, other than her spell pinging off of the troll's knee at a rather acute angle and just missing the trio of witches (two of whom were now glaring at her) on the other side of the bathroom, that is.

How interesting.

It appeared that troll's hide was magically resistant. With a whoop of glee Shelley let loose on the beast with a barrage of carefully selected spells targetting different body parts to see if it had any weak points. It didn't. And this only resulted in Hannah and Artemis glaring again at their friend who was now grinning happily and muttering about 'experimentation' while they tried to move the spasmodically twitching Granger out of the danger zone. Which now included the entire bathroom.

Once she was mostly out of harm's way behind Shelley, who was getting increasingly inventive with her spells and switching between her wand and staff to vary their power, the other girls lined up alongside their leader. While Luna put up a strange, shimmering, violet shield they let loose with a barrage of stunners that drove their enormous, stinky foe backwards due to the sheer weight of magic that was now being thrown against him. He slipped, staggered and fell hard on his backside making Shelley grin as she aimed at his eye and started to rasp out the incantation for her piercing hex.

Only to be interrupted by the odd witch beside her.

"Oh no, don't kill him, he's cute."

All eyes (including the very confused troll's) flicked immediately to the youngest person in the ruined bathroom. Not for long, however, since the dull-witted but instinctive beast used the hesitation to clamber to his knees and swing that great, gnarled club at them with all the force that he could muster. Which was considerable.

Time seemed to slow for Artemis at the end of their line closest to the swinging club as she accessed her heritage to lunge sideways at the absolute upper limit of her speed, knocking her three companions off of their feet and out of it's path. The tree trunk sized piece of hardened wood whistled inches over their heads, close enough to disturb a few strands of blonde hair and close enough to take Shelley's hat clean off of her head, the sweep taking it smashing into the opposite wall.

" _Nooooo._ Not the hat!"

Luna's wail of anguish at the damage to her favourite ever piece of headwear tailed off as her silver eyes hardened and the corner of the left one began to twitch in righteous fury.

"Alright Belly, _now_ you can kill him."

.

Shelley's grin at being let off the leash lasted for about three seconds until she caught sight of her ruined hat lying forlornly on the broken tiles several feet away. Then it turned into a grimace which was quickly replaced with snarl of rage. That useless, great lump of mouth breathing, dragon dung had broken her treasured top hat before she had even got a chance to start enchanting it. How very _dare_ he. The 'girl-who-lived's prodigious and terrifying temper finally overcame her desire to continue her unexpected and fun new project of experimenting on the troll.

She was ending this now.

Her friends seemed to be just as upset and their carefully held defensive line broke apart as they regained their feet, growled out their displeasure and joined their friend's assault.

"Oi, Shrek!"

The troll, not sensing his imminent, oncoming demise, opened it's mouth and roared a new challenge, spittle flying at them from it's gaping maw and causing three very disgusted 'eeuwws' from some of the other occupants of the bathroom. Of the two remaining, one was still frozen in fear, curled up in her corner, mewling and the other was too busy transforming her wand back into it's staff form and preparing a spell she had only read about before.

The trebuchet, or siege engine, curse had been invented back in the middle ages when armies still employed war wizards in their ranks and didn't want to lug bloody great contraptions all over whatever country they were busy plundering. Less wood, rope and stone to cart about meant more room for gold and slaves so these mages and their powerful spells were highly prized individuals back before the statute of secrecy was introduced.

Shelley took a moment to silently thank the dull as ditch water but very informative professor Binns for unintentionally leading her to this, suddenly very useful, item in the warmages repertoire. Then she gathered her power, thrust her staff forward and fired. It was just as awesome and spectacular as she had hoped it would be.

 _"Coracis!"_

When this spell, designed to bring down castle walls, was applied from Shelley's staff and with her prodigious talent at all types of magic and her enormous reserves, and hit an organic target the results were always going to be ... _messy_. The results of her little experiment in the application of even more power to an already over-powered piece of magic exceeded even her expectations.

She had decided to wait until the softest place that her adversary had was exposed before launching it and had been assisted in making this happen by Artemis slicing great, bloody rents in it's legs. The troll's hide may be magically resistant but the true wolf's claws were not magical. Just really, _really_ sharp. Shelley took full advantage of the situation and fired her curse. It entered the troll's open mouth and impacted with his soft palate before initiating it's fabled, explosive power. With an enormous, muffled, crumping sound, that even the professors approaching from the other end of the corridor heard, the entire bathroom went a very pretty shade of pink and everyone in it got even wetter and _very_ sticky.

"Boom, you hat bashing _bitch_."

The approaching quartet of professors heard Shelley's victory cry, roared with quite out of character enthusiasm and looked at each other worriedly before proceeding to it's source. Albeit more carefully and with a great deal more trepidation at what the hell kind of scene might now greet them upon their arrival.

.

The ringing of tinnitus in Artemis' ears caused her to shake her head and morph all the way back into her human form. Even in this guise her senses of sight, hearing and smell were much enhanced but when she had any of those organs transformed they were incredibly sensitive. Which made the force of the explosion that had just taken place in the bathroom, blessed as it was with near perfect acoustics, extremely painful for her. And more than a little sickening.

Others did not agree with her, apparently.

"That. Was. _Awesome!_ "

Surprisingly it was Hannah who, with puffed out cheeks and bulging eyes, had made this excited exclamation. Which was then instantly continued and, indeed, improved upon by the more predictable lunacy of the delightfully quirky (to them at least) Miss Lovegood.

"Did you see his head explode? It was like ... _whump_ ... and then ... pthffthh."

Luna was skipping around, covered with blood and bits of brain matter and gesticulating wildly as she re-ran the moment when her coven mate blew up a troll. These wild gesticulations, however, had the unfortunate effect of sending some of the blood and bits of the aforementioned troll all over the people nearest to her. Including the bushy haired Gryffindor with the thousand yard stare who looked at the pinkish grey lump now sliding down her forearm with renewed horror.

At this newest indignity, Hermione Granger then did what she had been holding back on for the last ten minutes or so and vomited copiously onto the floor.

Pomona Sprout, Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore arrived on the scene as Luna's excited exclamation was echoing in the bathroom and just in time to witness Miss Granger's multi-coloured yawn. Stunned silence reigned. Even the Potions Master's mouth was open in shock as they surveyed the devastated and almost entirely red bathroom. It took a moment for him to regain his voice but when he did it was with a wholly predictable response to the scene before him.

"Potter! What did you do?"

"She blew up a troll. Isn't it cool?"

Snape gave the still giggling, blonde, weirdo a very hard stare which completely failed to intimidate her in the slightest.

"Fifty points from Huflepuff for your inexcusable stupidity and recklessness."

"And twenty points to Hufflepuff for bravely helping out a fellow student in trouble."

McGonagall stepped in, since poor old Pomona was still dumb-struck and staring at the blood drenched first years in horror, and turned their loss into a gain with a smirk at her sneering, hook nosed colleague. Even in circumstances such as this she couldn't quite resist getting in a dig or two at the horrible man. Speaking of which.

"Each."

The headmaster merely leaned in the doorway and smiled his familiar, twinkly eyed smile as he watched them all.

He was _very_ pleased at this outcome as he believed that it demonstrated Miss Potter's innate goodness and in-built 'heroine' complex. Obviously, he hadn't over-heard her friends in the great hall earlier spending a good ten minutes trying to convince her to care about what happened to the mouthy, little Gryffindor bookworm. It also gave him hope that she would be going after the philosopher's stone that was secretly hidden (not very secretly or very well) behind his (mostly ineffectual) traps on the east wing of the third floor of the castle.

It never once occurred to him that she was already well aware of the possible challenge there, what with her network of yellow robed, gossip mongers, but had decided to hold off for a while yet. She was going to need something to do next term since she had already polished off most of her first year work and was spending most of her time on her 'homework for cash' business and other ... _projects_.

One of which she was going to have to start again from scratch after that hulking great knob jockey had destroyed her beautiful hat just as she had been about to start the process of enchanting it. Shelley was engaged in a glaring contest with the steaming great git, which she was winning since it was dead and all, when her House Head finally managed to rouse herself and drag them all off to the infirmary.

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 **Okay, so the** _ **Coracis**_ **, trebuchet spell isn't ours but we've both seen it used too many times before to remember where it originated from. If it was you or you know who it was then we convey our very great appreciation for coming up with it and apologise for not asking permission first.**

 **Reviews are our cookies and you wouldn't want us starve now would you. Seriously though the feedback would be very helpful on this one guys so do let us know how we're doing with it, and I promise that I will try and answer all of your questions. Of which I am sure there will be many.**

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 **DtR xx.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Okay so yes, despite promising an early update, we were late again. This was totally my fault but I did kind of change jobs and shifts in the last couple of weeks so I feel that it's a pretty good excuse.**

 **Big love to the mighty Tenzo51 without whom this story wouldn't have even happened, let alone be anywhere near as good as it is.**

 **This chapter's reading recommendation for you lovely people is ...**

 **Holly O'Hair's Fanfiction Diary by thefanshipdarkhorse.**

 **Don't judge me. I can feel you judging me, stop it! I stand by my affection for shows about cute girls doing cute things and Ever After High, although highly flawed, had great potential in this regard. It makes for some very cool, yuri fanfiction too.**

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 **I'm not JKR and I don't make any money from this. Which is a bit of a shame.**

 **DtR xx.**

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 **The Excellent Adventure of a Wolf, a Loony and a Very Bored Heroine.**

.

 **10\. Coming home For Christmas.**

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After the excitement of quidditch, Halloween and rampaging trolls, life at Hogwarts settled down, once more to something of a dull routine for staff and students alike. Although there was a marked shift in attitude from the previous wary respect for a talented and intelligent witch to a kind of awestruck horror at the fact that she had killed a troll to save them all from bloody death. Somewhat brutally it had to be said, but she had still saved them. She may have been previously celebrated for something she had no say in or control over, but now Shelley was being lauded for her own achievements.

Finally.

Her highly embarrassed friends had also shared in the lime-light, which had pleased Shelley greatly for some unknown reason, but usually downplayed their own roles to better keep to the background. As most eleven-year-olds tended to. Most eleven-year-olds who weren't Shelley Potter, that is. Her ego was enormous and she most definitely enjoyed the feeding and stroking that it received all throughout the rest of the term.

Professor Aurora Sinistra was particularly guilty in this regard when they turned up at her tower each week-end but she just couldn't seem to help herself around her sweet (but definitely not so innocent), little, first year visitors.

Shelley and Artemis had been joined in their Saturday night games of chase and the subsequent Sunday morning breakfasts with professor Sinistra by Hannah and Luna. Much to the delight of the Astronomy teacher who thought that they were two of the cutest girls that she had ever met. Admittedly deciphering Luna's strange speech patterns was rather hard work but it was definitely worth it just to see how under her thumb Shelley Potter was.

She may have the arrogance and attitude of someone more than twice her age but it gave the teacher a huge amount of pleasure to see the girl-who-lived crumble before the peculiar, little blonde. The stern admonishments, the subtle touches and longing looks, the pouts when either of them didn't get things their own way, Aurora saw them all and struggled to contain her sniggers when she did. It was like the two girls were already married in a lot of ways.

Not that they were alone in their clueless and oblivious bliss. Hannah and Artemis were just as bad. And sometimes actually worse if that were at all possible. Professor Sinistra was just glad that she got to witness it as they were never this open around any of the other staff, even Pomona Sprout, as their Head of House wasn't granted her status as 'cool Auntie Aurora', and so missed out on a lot of their more adorable moments.

The girls had begun to look forward to these breakfasts almost as much as their professor did, all four of them seeing her as a much cooler and funnier version of their House Head. She was also really good at giving advice. For instance, when Hannah admitted that she was saddened by the distance that seemed to be growing between her and her previous best friend, Auntie Aurora had been the one to calm her down. The four of them had listened with rapt attention while the experienced, older woman talked them through the perils and pitfalls of friends, best friends and even girl-friends. Even Shelley was spell-bound by her and after this discussion none of them ever missed another one of their Sundays together.

Of course, sometimes they were more eventful than others.

They were joined on one of these morning breakfasts by a half asleep Nymphadora Tonks clad only in a too short T-shirt that revealed rather more of her than anyone wanted to see while they were eating. The sudden silence that this sight generated was so complete that it finally managed to alert the sleepy seventh year to the fact that something was very wrong this morning.

There seemed to be a lot more bodies in the tower than she was used to seeing. Next to her lover were the four faces of some of her more terrifying house-mates, their angelic smiles turning extremely devious as they realised what she and their teacher had been up to last night. And this morning to be fair. Twice.

"Oh, bugger me."

Luna's retort that they were more than happy to leave that to their professor had the smirking girls snorting and coughing in helpless laughter. A laughter which the two older witches eventually joined in thus, once again demonstrating their 'coolness' to their younger counterparts.

If the good natured, but merciless, ribbing of Nymphadora Tonks and her teacher 'girlfriend' couldn't quite be described as bullying, what the Slytherins attempted in mid to late November certainly could be.

Marcus Flint and Adrian Montague, not having been around to see the troll incident, had very unwisely decided to exact some vengeance on the Hufflepuff chasers for their humiliating quidditch defeat. They were targeting Shelley's House and the younger students within it in particular and the 'girl-who-lived' was never going to let them get away with it for very long. She organised a couple of 'posses' of roving Badgers all armed and ready to retaliate at the slightest provocation, along with some of their more innocent looking House-mates as the 'bait'.

Needless to say, it did not go well for the two bullying Snakes when they set off one of her traps and they landed themselves right back in the infirmary again in very short order. By the time they were released from Madame Pomfrey's, admittedly rather rough, care the two of them were conspicuous in their absence from all situations where they might meet any of the yellow robed monsters who had put them there.

They were a cautionary tale for all who tried to belittle the members of Hufflepuff House and their growing list of achievements. As opposed to a certain mentally unstable blonde witch who was widely regarded as being one of the most visible success stories of their stratospheric rise from obscurity.

Luna's test results were utterly spectacular.

Of course, they were always going to be pretty good, what with her own studies which she had been doing for the last two years and the tuition that she had been receiving from Shelley. When combined with her extreme motivation to join her coven mates, it made the end of term exams an absolute breeze for her. There was not a single mark below Outstanding for Luna Lovegood and she cemented her place at the school with a great deal of style.

Not that she was alone in this.

For the first time in Hogwarts long and illustrious history, the House of the Badgers had actually out performed every other House in a series of statutory testing. The Ravenclaws were not best pleased about this state of affairs but, along with everyone else in the castle, wisely decided to keep their mouths firmly shut on the matter.

They all knew who was responsible for the up-turn in Hufflepuff's academic performance and not one of them wanted to upset the four little monsters who had blown up a fricking mountain troll. Their reputation had soared as both insanely dangerous for killing the beast and stupidly brave and honourable for their damsel rescuing antics.

As he 'rescued' party, Hermione Granger had also found her treatment at the hands of her peers had improved significantly. It appeared that the majority of the school now widely believed that she was 'favoured' by the Hufflepuff Hooligans and the bushy haired, bookworm was experiencing a welcomed lift in her own reputation. People still didn't want to hang out with the annoying, little swot, mind you, they just stopped being outright mean to her and left her the hell alone so as not to incur the wrath of the frightening Badger firsties.

And it was this point that was worrying the staff. These four, deceptively sweet, eleven-year-old girls now effectively ruled Hogwarts.

Potter and Amarok were the iron fist, Abbott was the velvet glove and Lovegood was ... well ... Lovegood. ie. As mad as a box of frogs. Their combined awesome level of strength, intelligence, adorability and total insanity meant that absolutely no-one but the most un-perceptive or mentally slow stepped up to challenge them.

The infirmary was, therefore, mostly inhabited by upper year Gryffindors along with a few of the less cunning, more inbred Slytherins for the latter part of the term.

The entire teaching staff breathed a sigh of relief when it was noticed that the whole group was headed home to spend the Yuletide break with their respective families. The lack of Hufflepuff names on the list of those staying at the castle for the Christmas festivities was a very welcome holiday bonus indeed, for them.

Well there was one name on the list, Pomona Sprout noticed, but she wasn't very concerned about having to see that much of her.

Nymphadora Tonks was staying but she didn't exactly plan on spending much time in the dorms. Or out of a certain Astronomy professor's very comfortable bed for that matter.

.

The train ride home was a lot of fun for Shelley. Mainly because she was being left alone to do exactly what she loved to do best; Thinking ... and plotting ... and planning. Which was just as well really since there was a lot of that to do with all she had learned in her first term. Only some of which was related to educational matters.

At least her understanding of what was happening with the useless DADA professor and all around idiot Quirinus Quirrell had been resolved. Once she had gathered the data of what set off her headaches in his classroom, because seriously there was nothing better to do there, she had sat down in the library and begun to research what might be beneath that terrible turban.

It had taken her two weeks after his, highly suspicious, fainting at the troll incident to find out.

It had been ridiculously easy to gain a pass for the restricted section of Hogwarts Library. Shelley simply went up to the Head Boy, a seventh year Ravenclaw, told him that she needed the pass for her research and then stared at him until he started sweating profusely and gave it to her. Then there was no stopping her.

She could (and had) owl order a lot of it, but there was still some gold buried in there. Gold that revealed a great deal about spirit possession and even hinted about how the man who had tried to kill her could have managed to survive his own rebounding killing curse. Hinted but didn't give any specifics which was just guaranteed to wind Shelley up. Worse still it wasn't like she could go searching for books on Dark possession or soul magics without the high probability of ending up being flagged by the authorities as some kind of Dark Lady in the making.

Even the Wizarding government couldn't be so incompetent as to ignore what their people were reading. Actually, they probably were that negligent and incompetent but she wasn't quite prepared to risk finding out for definite just yet. Not until she was powerful enough to simply not give a damn whether they knew or not.

Still, this information, although not one hundred percent complete, was still a good deal up on what she had known previously which was pretty close to nothing. At least now, Shelley knew that her DADA professor was being possessed by something or someone _really_ Dark and that whatever it was had some kind of connection to her scar.

It didn't take much of a mental leap to get to the name of Voldemort. Even some of her mentally challenged minions might have been able to come up with that conclusion when presented with the available evidence. And if they could then it was damn sure a fact that that weird old Gandalf dude who ran the school could. Shelley was starting to smell a set up here. And a very, very stinky one at that. The old man quite clearly wanted her to run this magical obstacle course of his and the only reason that she could of why was so that she would end up having to confront Quirrell at the end of it.

No more stuttering great twat messing up her learning opportunities in Defence seemed like an excellent prize for figuring out whatever puzzles lay behind the three headed dog that guarded the trap door. And of _course_ , she knew about that. That idiot ginger Gryffindor was just so loud. Even when he really, _really_ shouldn't be. The moron had gifted her the first piece of the jigsaw and she was supremely confident in her ability to breeze through the rest of them, whatever they were.

And then Quirinus Quirrell would be gone.

Awesome.

It seemed like a bit of a win-win situation to her, the only downside being not knowing the headmaster's motives behind it all. She decided that she should take the benefits of a world without Quirrell and not worry about the old man or the time being. There was plenty of time for that, after all.

Shelley was roused from her thoughts as they pulled into Kings Cross.

Artemis had been watching her friend muttering her way through whatever mental gymnastics she was engaged with for a good few hours and was pleased enough to spend her time doing so. It seemed to keep the insanely brilliant girl amused, well that and stroking Luna's hair, and consequently putting the younger girl into a coma of happiness, while she thought her deep thoughts. As long as she was at peace, Artemis was happy.

She was especially happy to ensure this because of the simple fact that she was even here and able to do so. If Shelley hadn't invited her to stay over the holidays she would have been stuck at the castle with the other losers. But as it was her BFF had proved her worth once more and manipulated her relatives into sending Artemis an offer to spend the Christmas break with them. It might not be as good as spending it with her own family but she would definitely take it over hanging out with only her teachers for company for a fortnight.

Plus. she got to meet the people responsible for the amazing, colourful, collection of awesomeness that was Shelley Potter. They weren't quite what she expected. Not that she really knew what to expect but it certainly wasn't these jolly and emotional people who greeted her strange friend with such enthusiasm. Artemis was her best friend and even she would admit that Shelley could be a bit ... cold. How she could have turned out that way with the obvious outpouring of love that she was constantly subjected to by her family was a mystery to her.

It was incredibly weird to watch. Fascinating, but weird.

"Shell-Bell!"

The big man scooped her up and whirled his little princess around few times grinning like a fool before placing her into his wife's arms for a crushing hug. To Artemis' total astonishment she accepted all of this without complaint and even reciprocated to some small extent.

"Hello daddy, Aunt Tunie." She then turned to her smirking cousin. "Alright Dudders."

"Welcome home cuz, missed you."

He pulled her into a tight hug.

"Really?"

"Life's a bit boring without you around to threaten and intimidate me."

Shelley seemed to accept this as a perfectly valid reason for his overly emotional display, much to his relief, and punched him in the arm with the appropriate lack of real force or venom. Vernon smiled indulgently at his much prized children before turning to their even more prized guest for the holidays.

"And this must be the amazing Miss Amarok. For all that you've done for Shell-Bell, you are _truly_ welcome among us, my dear."

By the time the odd group had reached their car and been strapped safely in, the true wolf had been pulled into no less than three hugs herself and lauded as the reason for their little girl's amazing, newly found state of bliss. She was confused though, since she thought that Shelley was being even more staid and stand-offish than usual. As she had previously noted, however, Shelley and her family were just really weird together. Fascinating and rather fun, but weird.

.

The first thing the girls did on reaching number four Privet Drive was to run upstairs to unpack and change into something much more comfortable and this meant entering Shelley's bedroom. Artemis looked at the pink door with it's 'Daddy's Little Princess' nameplate and tried very hard not to laugh out loud. Her amusement did not go un-noticed and she found herself the victim of a vicious tickle attack that drove the pair of witches through the door and into a veritable palace of pink, girly, fluffiness.

It only exacerbated her problems trying not to giggle and her mental best friend re-doubled her assault upon the white wolf. There was a brief respite when Dudley arrived, puffing with their luggage and shuffling his feet about nervously on the threshold, but he was soon pulled in as well and the mayhem continued.

The thumping, banging and muffled squealing coming from upstairs drifted down into the kitchen, causing a little chuckle to escape from Vernon Dursley's mouth. How he had missed hearing that sort of noise around the house.

The sort of noise that mean only one thing.

His little Shell-Bell was home.

And in good humour too if her quiet, restrained, laughter was anything to go by. Vernon couldn't remember the last time that his precious 'princess' had expressed her feelings with an actual, honest to goodness laugh. His satisfaction at this welcome situation shone through his beaming smile and the energy with which he scooped his wife up into his strong arms to give her a very unexpected Christmas kiss.

"Oh Vernon."

It was only when they reached the top of the stairs that Petunia realised where he was taking her. And, more importantly, why. Not that she wasn't pleased and excited by his sudden, amorous intentions, it was just that they had a house full of inquisitive kids and she really didn't want to have to give them 'the talk' just yet.

"No Vernon, what if the children hear."

"What over that racket? You're jesting my love, surely."

And as he kicked the door to their bedroom open like a hero from one of her more trashy romance novels, threw her on the bed and growled seductively while ripping of his shirt, Petunia found that she really didn't care that much anymore. She was even prepared to talk to Shelley about sex (and that was an absolutely terrifying prospect for anyone) if it meant that she was going to get some loving from her big, virile silverback, Vernon.

"What's going on Shell?"

A slightly nervous Dudley approached his scary cousin and her friend both carefully and quietly as they listened intently at his parents' closed bedroom door. He very soon wished that he hadn't as Shelley said in a very matter of fact manner that he was only too familiar with.

"Daddy Vernon and Aunt Tunie are having sex Dudley."

"Oh my God."

Dudley swallowed the bile that rose sudden and swift to his mouth and ran for the bathroom while the two girls sniggered and high fived each other. He knew that he was going to be lucky to survive this fortnight with his health and his sanity still intact. There were two of them to contend with now.

.

On the twenty fourth of December, the Dursley household went into full on Christmas spirit mode. It started with a special breakfast of pancakes and maple syrup, in honour of their guest, followed by a full, traditional, Christmas dinner and then finally ... presents. The true wolf was utterly gob-smacked at her gift from Shelley and the Dursleys and it's thoughtfulness took her breath away.

"Merry Christmas Arte'."

"What is it?"

"It's a two way portkey to Anchorage and back. I managed to .. er ... _persuade_ the Ministry to let me have it. For a fee of course."

The present that the wolf and her fellow Hufflepuff firsties had clubbed together for now seemed very, _very_ inadequate. Not that Shelley had seemed to think so as she had peeled off the bright, cheery wrapping paper earlier and opened the tall, cylindrical box to reveal a brand, spanking, new top hat. Her face was a picture of delight that had, likewise, delighted everyone else in the room.

"That's why we're doing our Dursley celebrations today, Arte'. So that we can spend Christmas and Boxing Days with your family."

"Wait. Did you say we?"

As much as Artemis Amarok loved spending time with her strange, brilliant friend, she wasn't sure how Shelley's rather unique personality and blunt nature were going to go down with the Royal Pack. Not that she could do anything about it now after the way that she had been made to feel so welcome and so well looked after here. She just hoped that her own family would be as sweet and patient with her BFF when the girl inevitably said something to piss them off.

.

As they stepped out onto the wide lawns of Arte's home, Shelley Potter decided that, despite her annoying tendency to save damsels in distress, she could have done a lot worse in the way of best friends than her current companion. This place was absolutely amazing. The house looked like it had grown out of the Earth but was filled to capacity with all sorts of cool technology. There were labs and gaming rooms next to greenhouses and softly funished sun-rooms.

It was science and nature co-existing in absolute harmony. She loved it.

Being somewhere that it actually snowed enough over Christmas for Shelley to construct a proper snowman for the first time ever was pretty cool too. Even if she was being constantly interrupted in said construction by a parade of extremely shy, but extremely inquisitive, young true wolves.

They were an interesting bunch, Arte's family, and Shelley was just itching to get some interaction time with them so that she could study the differences between her friend and the rest of her pack. Annoyingly, however, they seemed quite wary of her. With a sigh she realised that she was just going to have to be patient and let the skittish and clearly pre-warned wolves come to her before she could conduct any experiments on them.

Unfortunately for them, Shelley Potter didn't really do patient. She had kind of got the hang of enticing nervous people closer through fun though.

Pulling her wand from her hair the black haired witch made a sweeping motion with it, muttered a few words and suddenly one snowman became five. Five snowmen who then were sprouting arms and legs and wearing a variety of different hats. A stetson, a builders hard hat, a bikers cap, a policeman's helmet and an indian head-dress. Artemis' ipod that Shelley had borrowed provided the soundtrack and her bashful audience were treated to a very wintry and festive rendition of YMCA.

As she had planned they simply couldn't help themselves and soon that part of the snow covered, lawn was alive with small true wolves all dancing their hearts out to the Village People led by the very strange witch that their pack princess had brought home with her. She may be a human and all kinds of odd, but they had to admit that she was a lot of fun. Well they would have admitted it had they not been so swept up in the whirlwind of her mayhem.

The Amarok and her little family stood in the large, picture window that faced the lawns where this insanity was occurring and shook her head in both amusement and wonder. The way this girl took to her pack, and them to her, was as incredible as it was unbelievable. The wizarding folk that she had come across in the past were never this free and outgoing with, what they considered, creatures. But then, Artemis had told her Shelley was quite ... er ... _different_.

"Your friend's not all there is she?" There was a slight pause before. "I approve."

Her grand-daughter's happy nod and beaming smile in response was all that she needed to see. It had clearly been a wise decision to send Artemis to Hogwarts. The powerful connections that she was making there would only strengthen the position of her kin across the World if their princess was seen to be so close to this heroine of the magicals. No matter how strange she was.

Artemis herself, wasn't thinking in those terms, she was just happy that her family seemed to like Shelley as much as she did if their reactions were anything to go by.

Her mum had that tight expression on her face which, when in conjunction with the slightly turned head and the shaking shoulders, meant that she was close to repressed but actual hysterics. Her dad had no such problems with repression and was literally howling out his laughter at the dancing lunatic and her new furry fan club who had now moved on from the Village People to Michael Jackson.

Of _course_ , she would choose Thriller. And of _course,_ that was the moment that the rest of the Royal Pack chose to join them. She buried her face in her hands to stifle the snorts and giggles as the elders growled and huffed for a while before slowly starting to chuckle as their cubs 'were-wolfed it up' with Shelley and her snowmen.

.

Christmas dinner with the Royal Pack of the true wolves was an interesting affair. Not that they believed in Christmas, or Christ for that matter, but like the majority of beings on Earth they had adopted the holiday for their own purposes. Even so, it was pretty traditional fayre, with the turkey and all of the trimmings. They did have discussions of rather more import than usually occurred at the Dursley's table, mind you.

"It's important that you remain among the wizards for now Artemis. Tensions have been rising and we'll have need of the connections that you're making there."

"What's going on grandma?"

"Well some silly human girl went and got herself involved with a vampire clan in some hick town in Washington State."

"Why would that lead to tension between the wolves and the wizards?"

Roald continued the story, explaining how this idiotic, supernatural loving, fan-girl had somehow managed to involve the local shifter, wolf pack in an epic struggle between some powerful vampires. Blood had been shed on both sides and flags had been raised within the Statute of Secrecy Enforcement Department of the US Magical Congress.

It was a horrible, bloody mess.

Artemis got it. She needed to be careful. Diplomatic and careful. Glancing over at her gloriously quirky friend who was now trouncing one of the elders at chess and gloating about it, despite the danger of a true wolf's temper being let loose, and thought that diplomatic was probably a bit out of her reach. Especially with the company she kept in the wizarding world.

The Christmas present from her pack would certainly help with the careful though.

The polished mahogany, briefcase sized box was velvet lined and contained a pair of flat black Glock seventeen pistols, along with a professional cleaning kit and several boxes of ammunition. Artemis grinned widely at their lethal beauty and stroked the cold metal with a loving touch.

So cool.

Artemis slipped the pistols out of the box, tested the weight in her hands and then began to twirl them around on her trigger fingers. Faster and faster they moved in complex patterns before the grips slapped into her palms and the twin barrels pointed unerringly at an imaginary target on the wall. Well away from any of the other people/wolves in the room. Some lessons you never forgot.

The woman with the umbrella eyes watched approvingly as her daughter got good and familiar with her Christmas present, while not forgetting the first rule of handling guns. Never point it at somebody you're not prepared to kill. Ever since she had heard about this magically resistant troll that Artemis and her friends had fought at school, Alice had been determined on giving her this gift.

Okay, so her insanely brilliant, new witch friend had blown the damned beast to bits with her enormous magical power (which she had been only too glad to demonstrate for the awestruck pack) but Shelley might not always be around. Her precious little girl would not be left undefended if her magic failed to help them and she was somewhere that she could not safely transform. Hence the guns.

The Glocks were perfectly suited to Artemis, small enough for her young hands and to be easily concealed while at the same time being powerful enough to do some serious damage to any desired target. They were actually a great deal alike in that, her daughter and her new weapons. Small but deadly.

"Those look dangerous." Shelley qualified her statement so as not to be thought of as a wuss amonst the watching pack. "Fun, but dangerous."

It was an important qualification to make. Power and strength was everything to these proud creatures and she had to demonstrate hers to them. That she felt the need to prove herself worthy of Artemis' friendship was as much of a surprise to her as to everyone else.

The acclaimed physicist, Doctor Sheldon Cooper, (after whom she had always hoped that she had been named, even if it was chronologically improbable) had always said that; When it came to the business of success in science, friends were a distraction. And distractions didn't win you Nobel prizes.

She looked affectionately at her ... best friend ... all excited in her enthusiasm for the firearms that she handled in an exceptionally professional manner and couldn't help but smile. Yeah, the sainted Doctor Cooper could kiss her arse. Having friends like this was _awesome_. Just think of all the trouble they could get into and out of with these kinds of tools to supplement their magic.

"Don't they just? I don't know whether the bullets will penetrate a magical shield, mind you, but we could always ..." Artemis smirked knowingly at her BFF. " ... _experiment_."

The adults in the room were rather taken aback at the fire that was instantly lit in the eyes of their small, British visitor and chuckled to themselves as their giggling pack princess allowed herself to be dragged towards the door.

.

The procession that the princess of the true wolves was leading through the dense forest, ten minutes later, was strange to say the least.

The witch, the white wolf, half a dozen animated snowmen and pack of at least ten young, true wolves all skipping along to Artemis' choice of music as they wound their merry way into the woods. On reaching a suitable clearing, Shelley set up the snowmen, moved a large fallen tree trunk to a position behind and to the side of her friend for the spectators and began to cast shields on the snowy targets.

Soon the distinctive crack, crack, crack of rapid pistol fire drifted back up to the adults at the mansion and proud smiles appeared on the faces of most of them. Princess Artemis clearly _loved_ her Christmas present.

Their testing went on and on. It went on so long, in fact, that one of their eager little fan club members had to be sent back to the manor house for more bullets only to disappear. Instead of him, a slightly grumpy Roald Amarok was the one to arrive and chase them all back to the house in the deepening gloom. He was most amused by the conversation that his daughter and her mad friend were having on the way back though.

"So it went alright with some of the weaker ones you cast, but how do we get the bullets through a strong shield?"

"Oh, that's easy, my young padawan. Runes and Arithmancy."

"How are we going to carve runes on bullets? I mean, I'm no expert on ballistics but wouldn't that screw up the flight and accuracy a bit?"

"And therein lies the fun part Arte'. We need to figure it out first, applying mathematics and arithmancy to the rune-crafting process and then some extensive testing to get the best results ... which means?"

"Experiments."

"Bet your ass it does."

Artemis stopped in her tracks and stared at Shelley in confusion and not a little horror before asking as politely as she possibly could.

"What the hell was that?"

"Oh, I was trying out my American accent with one of your colloquialisms."

"Yeah ... so _don't_ do that again please."

But her friend wasn't listening. She was off in her own little world again, probably thinking of ways to make nine millimeter bullets explode like grenades when they hit their target.

Shelley's green eyes glittered and a wide, dreamy smile spread across her face at the thought of all the in depth research she was going to have to do to make this work. What with this and her hat to enchant it looked like the Philosopher's Stone and the possessed professor were going to have to wait until after the Easter break now. This project definitely trumped dealing with the idiot Quirrell. They might even get to use Arte's new toys on him. Now wouldn't _that_ be fun.

.

After an awesome couple of days in Alaska, the girls headed back to Surrey and a pre-planned evening rendezvous with some more of their friends. An evening that would be making much use of pillows, popcorn, trashy movies and loud music. It was looking to be truly fantastic night spent with her best friends, introducing them all to some of her more obscure and risque Yuri anime series. Until _somebody_ opened their big mouth without thinking that is.

She might be incredibly sweet and fun most of the time, but honestly, sometimes Luna was just a bloody liability.

"Doesn't Captain Cavegirl live in Surrey? I think that I heard something about that in one of her rants about how the Hogwarts Library should invest in florescent lighting like her local one in ... I want to say ... Crawley?"

"Where's that?"

Unfortunately, her Aunt Petunia, being heavily involved in the planning of this spectacular event was in the room and in a position to excitedly provide the answer.

"Oh, it's only about ten miles down the road. Did you want to invite another one of your friends to your sleepover Shelley darling?"

Shelley tried to explain that Hermione Granger was very definitely _not_ her friend and that she really didn't want the girl within a hundred miles of her but ten would suffice for now, but no-one was listening by this point. Stunned at having been rail-roaded into the acceptance of a guest who she really didn't want here, Shelley wondered how it had happened. Then she saw the evil smirk on Luna's serenely smiling face and she knew.

Seriously, that girl was an absolute menace.

.

Shelley's quite substantial bedroom was seeming a lot smaller later that evening. But then six pre-teen witches and all of their multifarious sleeping aids (mainly teddy bears and stuffed unicorns) did tend to fill the place up a bit.

Susan was here because Hannah was still feeling a bit bad about pulling away from her best friend and also the fact that the blonde had told her mother that she was staying at Bones Manor tonight. And definitely _not_ hanging out with a bunch of muggles and were ...sorry ... _true_ wolves. Even if she wasn't feeling guilty it would still have been incredibly rude to floo to Susan's home, use her as an excuse and then go on to the party without her. Hannah Abbott was the archetypical Hufflepuff in some respects and being rude to her friends was simply not in her nature.

Hermione Granger was here because Luna had somehow manipulated everybody into thinking that her dull and preachy presence was a good idea. Although to be fair to her, Captain Cavegirl had been mercifully quiet this evening, preferring to gaze in wonder at Shelley's small but exotic library.

Shelley rolled her eyes and huffed at the little bookworm's distinctly non party-like behaviour. Despite the fact that she would have been doing almost the exact same thing herself tonight if she felt that she could get away with it. There _may_ have been a touch of frustration and envy that fuelled her exasperation with the quiet girl at her being able to do what she liked without interference. Just a touch.

She glared.

Then she grimaced slightly as she felt another, altogether different, type of touch on her shoulder. To be honest it was more of a punch than a touch and, being that it came from Luna's small fist, it was rather a painful one too.

"Be nice."

"I'm being nice."

"No, you're not, you're being a grump, now suck it up, paint a smile on your face and at least pretend that you actually want her here."

"Don't see why I have to."

"Because if you do this then I'll let you play with my boobies like those 'yandere' girls in your cartoons."

"Okay first; They are _not_ cartoons, they're anime. And second; You're eleven, you don't have any boobies."

"A- _ha!_ So, you do admit to wanting to play with them." Luna gripped Shelley's raised finger that had just been poking her in her hand as she crowed in her perceived triumph before looking thoughtful and continuing. "When I'm older and actually have some, obviously."

It seemed that their argument had escalated in both it's potency and it's volume to the point of having attracted the attention of the entire room.

"Anyway, Shelley's more of a 'tsundere' than a 'yandere'."

At Artemis' interjection the argument shifted from it's original source about Shelley's behaviour towards her guests and onto the much more interesting subject of her obviously 'yuri' and even lesbionic inclinations. And then on to who would be the top and who would be the bottom between her and Luna. Not all of the girls in the room understood all of what was being said or suggested but they did understand that the objective was making fun of their hostess so they joined in with great enthusiasm.

Inevitably this led to someone being hit with a pillow at some point after the phrase 'baby-dyke' was used once too often. And then it was _on_. Soon enough the pink walls of the crowded bedroom were all but obscured with the sheer amount of tiny, white feathers floating about in the air.

When things had calmed down somewhat and Shelley's Aunt had finally come in and called 'time' on their evening's mayhem, the six tired girls sorted themselves out and hit their respective beds. Hermione Granger lay on her back, stared at the luminous stars on the ceiling and thought about how much fun she had managed to have with these excitable lunatics.

It was pretty clear that Shelley herself still wasn't particularly enamoured of her and, to be honest, that feeling was mutual. She found the girl-who-lived to be more than a bit of a bitch. Okay, she was unbelievably intelligent (Hermione would grudgingly admit more so than her) but she was arrogant in the extreme and all around obnoxious in her clearly and oft stated belief that she was always right.

And then seeing her tonight, having fun with her friends Hermione had seen a different side of Shelley Potter. A softer, sweeter side. I mean, you really had to pay attention to see it, but it was there. Somewhere. She hoped.

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 **Reviews are our cookies and you wouldn't want us starve now would you. Seriously though the feedback would be very helpful on this one guys so do let us know how we're doing with it, and I promise that I will try and answer all of your questions. Of which I am sure there will be many.**

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 **DtR xx.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Now you may feel that we're skipping over a lot of stuff here, but honestly, who just wants a simple, canon rehash when we can have so much more fun with this world of magic ... and wolves ... and hats.**

 **On that note, anything denoted with the symbol '~' is a mental conversation. And I do mean** _ **mental**_ **.**

 **Big love to the mighty Tenzo51 without whom this story wouldn't have even happened, let alone be anywhere near as good as it is. The Mirror of Erised thing is all down to Tenzo since I honestly forgot that it even happened in canon and was ready to plough on through regardless.**

 **This chapter's reading recommendation for you lovely people is ...**

 **Holly Potter and the Heart of Canis by Blacsparrow.**

 **I** _ **love**_ **this story. True, there's not much of it yet, but I sense a huge potential in this one and with a little more support, the author may well be encouraged to crack on with it a bit. Obviously, don't tell them that I said that but we all know what a huge difference a few nice reviews can make to our motivation and writing speed.**

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 **I'm not JKR and I don't make any money from this. Which is a bit of a shame.**

 **DtR xx.**

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 **The Excellent Adventure of a Wolf, a Loony and a Very Bored Heroine.**

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 **11\. Mirrors, Puzzles and Prizes.**

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The remainder of the winter break was spent with Shelley and Artemis hidden away in her room glued to both her laptop for up to date information on ballistics and a few large runes texts. They were engaged in the fascinating task of finding not only the best runes to enhance the muggle bullets for Artemis' pistols, but also where to position them in order to not screw up their trajectory and thus her accuracy with the weapons. It turned out that the best runes were a Futhark, delayed explosive and Othark, 'undoing' rune that would turn a mere bullet into a mini claymore mine, shattering the projectile into dozens of tiny shards one millisecond after impact.

Unfortunately, this meant that the highly unstable rune pair had to be carved on the back of the bullet, inside the casing and the only way that they were going to be able to do that was to make their own ammunition. After researching it a bit on the internet, the girls thought that it looked like a thankless and laborious task, but it was, never-the-less a necessary one and so Shelley set about buying the necessary equipment. Because of the rather stringent laws surrounding firearms and explosives that pervaded in Britain, she found it necessary to make her purchases through some swiftly manufactured fake companies and shipped to various PO boxes to await owl delivery to Hogwarts.

It was all very exciting, especially to Artemis who was fascinated and impressed by the speed with which her criminal BFF set up all these highly suspect dummy corporations and companies. And her delight when Shelley managed a bit of a magical bodge job to make half a dozen rune enhanced bullets just to ensure that she could was so great that it was all she could do not to let out a high, girly squeal. Even if it had taken all day to get the right. Obviously it was going to be a lot of hard work once they had all of their gear assembled and could start the manufacturing process in earnest.

Still, despite all the work involved, it looked like it would be awesome, but frustratingly all experimentation would have to wait until the girls were back at school, had their ammunition ready and could sneak off to the Forbidden forest to do their 'research'. Privet Drive was a bit too suburban and middle class for even the smallest amount of gunfire to go un-noticed for long. Even with her, entirely deserved, reputation for being somebody that you were better off leaving well alone, it only took one interfering old busybody to call the coppers and they would be in trouble.

Not the fun sort of trouble that they got into at school mind, but actual police intervention, social workers round the house, law courts and juvenile detention centre kind of trouble. And although it was highly likely that, due to their magical heritage it wouldn't go on for too long, it was still trouble that neither of them needed. Especially since they were due to go back to Hogwarts in two days time.

Shelley and Artemis _supposed_ that they could _probably_ wait until then. It was still a bit of a struggle for them mind you, so they filled their final couple of days taking boxing lessons with Dudley as well as persuading him to teach them other, less savoury, forms of hand to hand fighting. Which he had regretted almost immediately. His cousin and her white haired friend might only be small but they had no fear and were bloody _vicious_.

.

Having reunited on the train and caught up on all the gossip that six days apart could reasonably generate, the four, inner circle members of the Hufflepuff Marauders entered their dorm with their usual vigour. Much to the amusement of the other residents who were in the middle of finishing their ablutions and getting dressed for dinner when the weirdly lecherous Luna Lovegood started chasing the half naked girls around the room with tickle fingers extended. After she had finally tired of this fun game the blonde lunatic trotted over to where Shelley was unpacking and bounced up onto 'their' bed.

There was a loud and unexpected rustling sound from beneath her bottom and the strange girl immediately manouvered back up into a bit of a squat in order to pull the offending item out from under her.

"Hey Belly-Boo, someone's left a Christmas present on your bed."

"Luna, my insane little monkey, do you think you would be able to stop calling me that if I asked _really_ nicely?"

With a finger to her chin and a thoughtful (if cute) expression on her face, the peculiar Miss Lovegood appeared to think about this request for a full minute before.

"Ummm ... no."

Shelley's shoulders slumped. She should have known better than to ask but it had been worth a try. Instead of continuing to argue and doubtless getting embroiled in yet another strange and ultimately fruitless conversation with the slight blonde girl, Shelley opted to inspect her gift. It proved to be a very good move on her part as, after shedding it's bright, wrapping and perusing the brief note about it being her father's and some rather silly stuff about using it wisely (as if) she picked up the shimmering cloth garment and placed it around her shoulders.

Nothing Happened.

Or rather something _did_ happen but it was a something that she was totally unaware of. Artemis was aware of it, however, and had no hesitation in voicing her surprise and not a little envy at whatever it was.

"Damn Shell', how come you always manage to find cool stuff like this."

Shelley turned to the mirror to see what all the fuss was about. And then grinned like a loon.

Her body had disappeared, leaving only a disembodied head bobbing around in the dorm and causing multiple shrieks from her freaked out peers and one un-necessarily loud exclamation of; 'What the hell!' as the others turned to look. This caused Shelley to try something. Discarding her hat for a minute, fiddling around with the top collar of her new cloak, she pulled the hood all the way up before turning back to face the mirror once more.

Oh. My. God. It was a freaking invisibility cloak. Now _this_ was a Christmas present. True, it didn't make her quite as happy as her new hat had done but it was a pretty close run thing. The only question in Shelley's mind was who on Earth could have been stupid enough to give _her_ something that would make it even easier for a certain group of first-year witches to break the rules. They clearly weren't very intelligent. Or, as she had found to be more usually the case in the magical world, they were intellligent enough but just dreadfully naive. Especially when it came to trusting the 'girl-who-lived' with an item with the potential to cause as much mayhem as she was obviously going to.

She began her exploitation of her cool new toy by quietly moving about the dorm, sneaking up on her friends and scaring the crap out of everyone. Everyone except Artemis that is, who could not only hear her but smell her as well. Which wasn't at all creepy. Oh no. Shelley wasn't _actually_ creeped out even slightly of course, since it was her best friend forever (she couldn't quite bring herself to say the abbreviation' BFF' just yet or even think it) that was doing the smelling.

She was aware that this made her just as weird as the nasally enhanced wolf but in the true spirit of their somewhat warped friendship had decided to embrace the weirdness and settled for trying to tackle her and then losing yet another play fight with her.

.

Shelley Potter's first foray into the ancient castle under her new stealth cloak was taken alone by her. In all fairness, she had actually offered to take the girls with her but they had insisted that her first time with her father's old cloak should be a solely personal thing. Even Luna hadn't wanted to intrude upon her friend's private time with the rare and expensive heirloom. She knew what it was like to lose a parent and how much she valued every little thing of her mothers so she was unsurprisingly understanding in this situation. Not that she had really needed to be in this particular case.

The 'girl-who-lived' had read many different accounts of her parents, their battles and their joys and their sacrifices and while she appreciated them (especially the last one) she had never really known them. Shelley didn't remember anything about her biological parents and even if she did she probably wouldn't have thought of them or treated any better than she did the Dursleys. Emotions, while not being a total waste of time, in that the judicious application of them could get her what she wanted in certain circumstances, were still not something that she considered to be terribly important in life. Shelley was much more of a Spock figure. Logic and rational thinking were usually more effective in providing better results than any wishy-washy feelings did. That was simply her nature.

Her friends making sure of her spending some quality alone time with her father's cloak, therefore, made no sense to Shelley whatsoever. Also with just a single eleven year-old witch underneath it, she kept tripping over the damn thing as wandered through the (mostly) deserted corridors. Even scaring the crap out of the various amorous couples that she encountered didn't seem as much fun without having her fellow little monsters there to share in the experience with her. She did learn a surprising amount about the more physical aspects of human romantic and sexual encounters on her nocturnal adventure, mind you.

Being the inquisitive soul that she was, Shelley wondered how long it would be before that kind of thing became an issue in her own life and whether or not she could possibly avoid it being so. It did seem excessively and un-necessarily messy. Knowing the terrifying force of nature that was Luna Lovegood and her obsession with naked girls (and more specifically _her_ naked body) Shelley resigned herself to the fact that it was going to happen one day. In the quest for information, she began to hunt for a lesbian couple to study so that she was neither caught out when Luna did decide to get all amorous with her in the future, nor in a position where she wouldn't be holding up her end of such an encounter.

This proved to be a somewhat futile search as it seemed that same sex pairings were even more uncommon in the Wizarding World than they were in the muggle one. Which was rather annoying, since it was much easier to learn from a book if one had the chance to also indulge in some (purely scientific) observation of the subject that one wished to study. It took a lot longer than she had liked before Shelley remembered about her pink haired House-mate and the Astronomy professor's illicit relationship and even longer to get around the wards on her quarters but it was well worth the trouble.

She learnt a _lot_ of really useful stuff. True, some of the things that they got up to were icky enough to leave her feeling a little queasy but on the whole it looked like a reasonably fun and enjoyable activity which she was now even slightly looking forward to.

Many people would consider that she was far too young for such thoughts but Shelley Potter was a firm believer in planning ahead. Also she knew that her insane little bed-mate had about as much self control as a junkie in a methodone factory and suspected that it wouldn't be as long as any of them thought before the girl began her 'seduction'.

.

Their third week back at school saw the second of Hufflepuff's quidditch matches of the season, this time against Ravenclaw, which was just as well supported as their first brutal encounter. The flying Badgers were just as brilliant against the Eagles although it was a much cleaner match than their virtual brawl with the Slytherins, their opponents this time being a far more technically gifted team.

It made very little difference to the end result, however, as the Hufflepuff chaser trio were simply unstoppable, racking up a huge lead within the first forty minutes and all but forcing them to scatter before their wild and reckless goal fest. Cho Chang, the new Ravenclaw seeker finally decided she had had enough and ended the game shortly after by catching the snitch in an attempt to salvage at least some pride from the extremely one sided affair. Their own seeker seemed rather more intent on watching his pretty counterpart than actually competing against her for the little, golden ball and received a rather stern talking to from Demetia Gently.

Actually the 'talking to' swiftly went from mere words to punches and got to the point where Cedric would have spent his second night in the Infirmary that year had the rest of his team-mates not intervened on his behalf. That they did so with extreme caution (even Shelley and Artemis who could have probably taken her in a fight) spoke volumes about just how enormously pissed off their captain was with the blonde haired boy and led them to a new team resolution; Do what Ms Gently says and never talk back when it comes to quidditch.

The party in the common room was slightly subdued to start with, following this locker room altercation, but even the driven and serious sixth year couldn't keep her grumpy demeanour in the face of Hufflepuff karaoke. Especially when some of the younger years got hold of the microphone and gave a doe eyed and cutesy performance of 'Love will keep us together' by the Captain and Tennille. The rest of the Badgers smiled at their adorable (but somehow still quite scary) juniors and soon joined in and Demetia's dogged and determined resistance finally crumbled.

.

Unfortunately, school was not going as well as quidditch.

After another month filled with yet more terrible teaching in Potions, DADA and now even History of Magic, Shelley's patience finally broke. It was abundantly clear that their _dear_ Headmaster wasn't going to do anything about any of her complaints and so the Hufflepuff Marauders made the decision to clear out some of the dead wood themselves. Starting with the worst offender, Quirrell.

By happy accident he was also the professor who seemed to be either, being manipulated by or playing host to, Shelley's supposed mortal enemy, Lord Voldemort so it was very much of a 'two birds with one stone' situation for them. Also, since Gandalf the Git had clearly set up the whole third floor corridor deal to entice the man (and possibly them) into some kind of trap, they had a ready made, private arena in which to confront him. Or to kill him if he got particularly testy about being caught.

It was the thought of 'catching' Voldemort that sparked an idea in Luna's odd, but brilliant, brain and led to the four witches hitting the restricted section of the school library late at night to research creating something that they called a 'spirit trap'. Shelley's remarkable cloak was employed and the group made sure to spend at least two hours per night on their new study project. Even with their intensive reading it was a gargantuan task and the Marauders were forced to out-source some of their research.

Thankfully, their dorm-mate and Hannah's childhood friend Susan Bones had, since leaving the blonde girl behind somewhat, started hanging out with a certain bushy haired Gryffindor bookworm and with her help a deal was soon struck. Apparently the girl just wanted a bit of company and limited access to Shelley's internet connection. There was some dis-quiet in the Badger's Sett about allowing a Gryffindork such access to their common room but, since this came almost exclusively from Shelley and she was immediately out-voted by her annoying friends, it got settled pretty quickly. Thus with Hermione and Susan providing back up, reading books that the others had _acquired_ in their late night visits to the library, things started to move along much faster with operation spirit trap.

It took them all the way up to the Easter break but they managed to make one eventually. Now they were ready to take on Dumbledore's magical assault course, rid themselves of a pesky Dark Lord and hopefully steal a priceless artifact at the same time. Having put it off for so long the girls were now quite looking forward to it. Plus, if they were really lucky they might get to try out Artemis' new stabilised and recoilless, exploding bullets with which they had had fun blowing up a rather large portion of the Forbidden Forest.

.

All four founding members of the Hufflepuff Marauders had managed to convince their respective relatives that it was necessary for them to stay at Hogwarts during the term break. Some (Hannah and Luna) made the excuse of needing extra study time for their end of year exams while others (Shelley and Artemis) were a little more blunt, stating that they had better things to do. The fact that nobody argued with any of their reasoning wasn't questioned by the girls who simply patted themselves on the back for being so marvelously persuasive.

They took their chance at the first opportunity that presented itself when their ineffectual headmaster was apparently off playing at politics on the second night of the holiday break. None of them actually believed that he was far off, mind you. They correctly guessed that the old git was probably hiding out in Hogsmeade waiting for whatever alarms he had rigged up around the 'prize' to go off. He was so transparent that it was almost laughable.

The marauders hit the third floor corridor all hidden under Shelley's cloak and with a surprisingly simple, first year, unlocking charm, they entered the first chamber of 'Gandalf's Gauntlet'. Only to come face to face with a huge cerberus, all matted fur, slavering chops and yellow teeth. He was a rather unkempt looking beast and terribly ugly but this didn't seem to put Luna Lovegood off her stride even slightly.

"Ooh, look at the cute, little doggy, isn't he just _adorable_."

Hannah, apparently agreed, and before Shelley could inject a voice of either reason or caution into proceedings, the two blondes had got themselves across the room and each attached themselves to one of the beast's outer heads. That it didn't immediately tear their silly throats out was a combination of surprise on the cerberus' part and sheer, dumb luck in Shelley's opinion. Then she saw the middle head staring straight at the other witch in the room.

The witch who was also an Alpha wolf and whose features were now rapidly shifting as she growled menacingly at the large, but now at least somewhat docile looking, beast.

Fluffy the cerberus (as they later discovered his name to be from a very sheepish Hagrid) did not appear to be in the mood to challenge the princess of the entire World's population of true wolves. He lowered his head that wasn't being scratched or kissed and shuffled off over to the corner of the room while keeping a submissive, but still rather sharp and wary, eye on the extremely dangerous looking magical wolf and her small human pack.

Upon his movement, a sturdy trap-door appeared and, after a brief struggle to pull the two blondes off of the so called guardian of the room, the four girls stood around it, peering down into the utter darkness.

"What do you think's down there?"

"Judging by the lack of light or a ladder, I'd say it was something soft enough to break your fall without breaking your legs. Of course, it will still be something rather nasty I'd imagine, we ought to proceed with ... "

"Wheeeeee!"

" ... caution. Never mind."

"You alright down there Luna?"

"It's all soft and squishy but sort of bouncy and tangly too." Luna's voice drifted up from the inky darkness with all of her usual spaced out quality until she all of a sudden got an excited note to it. "Ooh its coming to say hello, I think it wants to be my friend."

The Devil's Snare was just really starting to pull at the small, dreamy, lunatic in earnest when two of her comrades dropped right into it next to her. Shelley sat on the edge of the trapdoor, wand in hand and shook her head at her impetuous fellow Marauders and their utter stupidity. She waited for a couple of minutes to allow them the opportunity to learn a valuable lesson from this very silly mistake before conjuring an umbrella and floating, Mary Poppins style, to the floor, casting an _incendio_ as she went.

.

"Do you think that you could have at least, _tried_ to not set us on fire, Bells?"

"Probably." The insane 'girl-who-lived shrugged her shoulders at her glaring and very wet friends. "But where would be the fun in that."

All conversation stopped as the reached the end of the short corridor and entered the next stage of 'Gandalf's Gauntlet'. This was much better than the previous trap. At least they could see. And what a sight it was, hundreds of tiny, winged, quidditch sntiches flitting and fluttering around the cavernous 'room', all going in different directions and somehow managing not to collide with each other.

Their task was clear.

" _Coool._ "

Knowing exactly what that tone from her wolfy friend meant, Shelley managed to just about get four words out before she was out of time.

"We're not seekers, we're ... "

But, the suddenly much more cheerful, Artemis was already off on her broom and diving wildly among the snitches, that mad gleam in her eye that the little wolf always got when she was 'on the chase'.

"Never mind." Shelley sighed out in resignation.

She seemed to be saying that a lot tonight and she had no doubt that this would _not_ be the last time either. They were adorable and funny and loyal but honestly, the merest whiff of an adventure and they were charging off like a bunch of brainless Gryffindors rather than the sensible and (reasonably) intelligent Badgers that they actually were. She still couldn't help but smile as she watched her white haired friend whizzing around the open space yipping and howling with unrestrained glee.

Shelley allowed the 'chase' to go on for far longer than any of them would have thought possible before finally getting bored of watching her strange friend trying (and failing) to catch the elusive, charmed, half snitch, half key and ending it with an abrupt.

"Accio working key."

As she had explained to her 'students' many times, magic was all about intent and making sure that you used the correct phraseology. Especially with this particular spell. The winged key flew straight and true to her hand all but brushing Artemis' nose on its way and landed in her palm with a satisfctory smacking sound. Shelley pulled off its wings so it couldn't escape again and tossed the key to Luna while impatiently gesturing that they should get a move on.

.

"Is anyone any good at chess?"

Shelley was (as she was good at everything, obviously) but felt that they had already wasted enough time with that ridiculous key business in the previous room and put forward the plan to use their pilfered brooms and simply fly over the board. There was some slight resistance to this as Hannah, in particular, was apparently looking forward to a good old, bloodthirsty game but in the end, expediency prevailed and they drifted over the furious pieces.

The cute blonde was still giving out equally cute huffs of displeasure at the way they completely by-passed, what was sure to be, a brilliant battle, but the others studiously ignored her. And it wasn't like it mattered, anyway. In the next section, Hannah's freaky blood lust would be more than sated.

.

The first thing that alerted the four girls as to what their next obstacle would be was the smell. Quickly followed by the outraged roar of a grumpy beast who had been awakened by their giggling, chattering and general lack of attention to their surroundings. Oh yes, they knew exactly what this was alright.

"Troll!"

Artemis whipped out her pistols and blazed away at the lumping great monster, it's slow mind and slow movements making a very tempting target for her and one that she couldn't possibly have resisted if she had wanted. Even with her modified, explosive bullets, however, the white wolf wasn't able to do much damage to the thick skinned troll. She did piss it off enough that it turned towards them and roar though, which was just the opportunity that her stupidly powerful, best friend had been waiting for.

With a whoop of joy Shelley deployed her staff and unleashed what was undoubtedly her favourite spell to date on the unsuspecting creature. He had, very sportingly, opened his mouth to bellow a challenge at the three small humans and the green eyed witch's trebuchet spell sailed straight and true into his open maw.

The result was just as bloody and spectacular as it had been on Halloween when enacted against the troll's just as smelly and ugly cousin. Their ear-drums reverberated to the huge, soggy explosion and the chamber immediately turned that pretty shade of pink that the girls were all coming to enjoy so much.

Once again, it was Hannah that put their feelings into just the right words.

"Still awesome."

The laughter of the four Hufflepuff Marauders as they carefully picked their way through the remains of this room's guardian may or may not have been considered to be extremely inappropriate for such sweet, young things. It also sounded incredibly creepy.

.

Their next to last stop was a table full of potions next to a flaming bridge and an insultingly simple logic quiz. Once they had identified and selected the correct vial, Shelley un-stoppered it and held it to Artemis' super sensitive nose. The little wolf could tell what was in a potion down to the smallest drop of worm water and, having been extensively coached by Shelley over the past few months, she could now identify them at will.

"It's a flame freezing potion."

This was a talent of the wolf's that Shelley had discovered early on and one which she employed regularly to test out all of their brews in class before handing them in to the supposedly brilliant professor. It was a good fail-safe to make sure that the horrid piece of excrement disguidsed as a human being couldn't take any more points off of them than was strictly necessary.

"Isn't there a spell for that?"

There certainly was and Hannah Abbott knew it, thanks to the ultra paranoid Auntie of her former best friend Susan, who had insisted that the two of them learned it in case of a fire. She flicked her wand about confidently and, unlike in the whole chess game episode, seemingly had no problem with 'cheating' her way past Snape's nasty, little logic trap. Luna and Artemis' twin beaming smiles suggested that she wasn't the only one who hated pretty much anything to do with potions.

.

And so they came to the finale. The supposedly great prize at the end of the ridiculously over elaborate and frustratingly easy set of tasks that they had just powered through in under half an hour. It was a mirror.

Okay, it was quite a nice mirror, all tall and stately and ornate looking but they were still all a bit disappointed to be honest. Well, until they actually took the time to properly look into it that is. Surprisingly, perhaps for four such different and unique individuals, all four of the girls saw only a very slight variation on the same image that stared back out at them.

It was them. Much older and _much_ more mature and ... developed, but definitely still them. Dressed in tight and rather risque robes of red, yellow, blue and green, the reflections of the older them smiled knowingly and rather smugly back at themselves and gave a variety of small waves, leers and winks. It didn't escape the notice of any of the girls that these sexy and powerful looking witches were sat upon gilded thrones in, what appeared to be, the Great Hall of Hogwarts.

Presiding.

Ruling.

In addition to their obvious high, almost regal, status they also looked to be quite ... _intimate_ ... with one another. Which was interesting. For those among them who hadn't spent the last six weeks examining the mating behaviour of 'witches who liked witches' as Shelley Potter had, it may have been a bit _too_ interesting. Interesting and weird. At least their recovery time from the shock was quite quick, though, since interesting and weird basically described their lives as the inner circle confidantes of the mentally unstable genius that was 'the girl-who-lived'. And it wasn't like they didn't already rule this school, they were just a bit more sneaky and subtle about it than these older versions of themselves appeared to be.

It was still pretty bloody awesome though. So awesome that Luna, who was totally enchanted by the vision of their future that the mirror showed her, didn't even feel the tiny tug on fabric as something hard dropped into her robe pocket.

.

The shade of the former Dark Lord Voldemort had had a rotten six or so months. He had arrived at the castle and the place that he had formerly called his most stable home with the able, if unwitting and unco-operative, assistance of the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor for this year, Quirnius Quirrell, full of hope. The hope that he would be able to recover the philosopher's stone that his foolish old adversary, Dumbledore had locked up here and use it to re-make himself. He was also quite hopeful that he could manage to make that horrid Potter girl's life at school so unpleasant that she would run off back those bloody muggles and give him a better chance of killing her in the summer.

Both of these hopes had, unfortunately, been quickly dashed by the effectiveness of the old man's mental shields, a need to not draw attention to himself and actual contact with the object of his secondary obsession. Shelley Potter was not even slightly like he expected her to be.

She was far from the pampered princess that he had thought she would be. Her sharp mind hid all sorts of cunning, manipulative and yes, even psychotic thoughts that she masked with the expertise of a true 'Dark' witch that made Bellatrix look like a pussycat in comparison. She had even gone so far as getting herself sorted into Hufflepuff in order to better build her network of useful connections as well as her army of insane, volatile and very, very loyal followers. Honestly, he was a little jealous that he hadn't thought of doing that.

None of this made her any less annoying, mind you since the damned girl seemed to thwart him at every turn. His beautiful distraction attempt with setting that mountain troll loose in the castle so he could scout out the third floor and it's hidden traps had failed spectacularly when she had dealt with the beast in about ten minutes flat. While being wildly impressive it was also incredibly annoying. It was a combination of the troll debacle and then her subsequent, absolute destruction of his old House's quidditch team that finally convinced him to try a new approach.

His new plan had involved sitting back, watching and waiting. Waiting for Shelley and her crew of tiny terrors to make an attempt on the stone as he knew that they would be physically unable to stop themselves from doing so. And once again he found himself being annoyingly impressed with her as she very patiently waited for her perfect opportunity to arrive before launching a swift and sudden assault that had very nearly taken him by surprise. He actually _was_ surprised when the four little monsters that he had sneaked up so quietly as they stared into a large mirror in the final room turned to face him with identical evil smiles on their devious faces.

"Hello professor Quirrell ... or should I say Voldemort? Welcome to the party."

Two wands, a pair of nasty looking muggle pistols and that Merlin damned staff whipped up to point directly at him and the unmasked Dark Lord paused to consider his options for a moment. Which proved to be a rather large mistake. Apparently Shelley Potter was neither in the habit of engaging in playful banter before a fight nor did she seem to be overly familiar with any form of fair play.

This would have been something that he would have approved of greatly were it not for the fact that his host was unceremoniously shot five times in the chest by the white haired delinquent, killing him instantly. And removing his only tool with which to attack them.

He was just re-grouping and coalescing himself into a black mist form in order to run off and find another body to leech off of when four orange and blue, curling beams of light hit him and forced him to stop.

There was varying amounts of tension in the ranks of the little Badgers as they hadn't all been entirely sure that this was going to work. Shelley sensed this and decided to lighten the mood by having some fun with her friends.

"There's something very important I forgot to tell you about this containment spell." Her face got very serious. "Don't cross the streams."

"Why not?"

"It would be ... ummm ... bad."

Having seen the movie that she was referencing many times, Artemis caught on to what her lunatic, best friend was doing and decided to play along.

"I'm kind of fuzzy on the whole good-bad thing. What do you mean by ... _bad_?"

"Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light."

"Oh my God! Total magical, protonic reversal." Artemis did the awed gasp just right before appearing to sober and continuing. "Right, so that's bad. Okay, important safety tip girls, thanks Shell."

Shelley looked around at her two, gullible, blonde friends before smirking at her wolfy best friend, who was now struggling to hold back her own laughter, and saying.

"Nah, I'm just shitting you, we'll be fine."

Hannah glared at her friend and her ... whatever it was that Artemis _was_ to her ... and would have punched them both in the arm had her hands not been busy holding part of the smoking form of a Dark Lord with that cool lightning stuff pouring out of the end of her wand. She settled for a verbal reprimand instead.

"You're such a pair of dicks."

The Ghostbusters style containment field, cast by Shelley's Marauders, held the struggling shade/spirit within its glowing, blue interior without any fuss or bother and the four girls took a moment to admire their handiwork before getting on with their business. Working together the black, smoky essence of the Dark Lord Voldemort was manoevered across to the other end of the dais and to within a couple of inches of Shelley's hat, still perched as it was atop her head. The girl-who-lived then reached up and tapped her wand on the bright, plastic, sunflower, adorning her beautiful piece of milinary and activated the charms on it with a softly spoken _abracadabra_ (much to the mirth of her cohorts).

There was a flash as the blue light of the containment field, complete with its ephemeral prisoner, was sucked into the sunflower followed by a brief howl of pain and displeasure and then nothing. The only thing that gave it away that there was a Dark Lord trapped in the mental looking top hat was the fact that sunflower now had red eyes instead of black and the smile was more of a grimace. Frankly, since nobody in their right mind, outside of a few of the Hufflepuff girls, wanted to get that close to the scary and insane witch, this really wasn't much of a giveaway anyway.

.

The speed, ferocity and total ruthlessness of the attack had left the Dark Lord dazed, confused and ultimately trapped. But trapped where? That was the question. At first it had been all strange, bright lights and pain that just wouldn't stop which, seeing as he was only a shade right now shouldn't really have been possible. But then, as suddenly as it had started, the pain was over and replaced by ... nothing. Well, nothing but a total and unrelenting darkness.

~Where the Hell am I exactly?~

~Hello Tom~

~Hello ... Tom?~

~Mmmm, well sort of, yes~

~Bloody hell! You're my horcrux aren't you.~

~Well done Tom. Yes, I'm your last, unintentional one.~

~What a handy twist of fate, a horcrux in the girl-who-lived. Of course that would mean that I'm now in ... ~

~Potter's insane brain? Oh, yes.~

~Bollocks.~

~You think your life sucks, I've been trapped in this crazy golf course, inside the walls of a lunatic asylum, that she calls her mind for ten, bloody long, years.~

~Oh come on, at least you're sentient, it can't be _that_ bad.~

~Do you want to swap?~

~Errr ... no.~

The fascinating and informative discussion between the remnants of the actual Lord Voldemort and his final soul shard was then rudely interrupted by their hostess barging her way into the conversation.

~Hi Toms, what are we talking about?~

~Oh crap! She can hear us.~

~That's not the worst part, Tom.~

~She can _talk_ to us~

~Shi-iii-it~

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 **Reviews are our cookies and you wouldn't want us starve now would you. Seriously though the feedback would be very helpful on this one guys so do let us know how we're doing with it, and I promise that I will try and answer all of your questions. Of which I am sure there will be many.**

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 **DtR xx.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Yes, I know. It's been a while and what can I say? Real life and quite frankly; Worst. Winter. Ever. Still, I finally seem to have shaken off the blues that have mentally crippled me and we can all put it behind us and get going with my stories again.**

 **Quick content note, anything denoted with the symbol '~' is a mental conversation. And I do mean** _ **mental**_ **.**

 **Big love to the mighty Tenzo51 without whom this story wouldn't have even happened, let alone be anywhere near as good as it is.**

 **This chapter's reading recommendation for you lovely people is ...**

… **well, not a reading recommendation but a viewing one. Some of the more cultured and educated among you will notice that in this chapter I have borrowed rather heavily from an awesome anime called YuruYuri. Specifically, season 1 episode 5. I urge you all to watch it. It is an experience not to be missed.**

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 **I'm not JKR and I don't make any money from this. Which is a bit of a shame.**

 **DtR xx.**

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 **The Excellent Adventure of a Wolf, a Loony and a Very Bored Heroine.**

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 **12\. Reflections on a Good Year.**

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The end of the school year had rolled around faster than anyone had believed and for the first time in living history Hufflepuff had dominated both in academic and sporting prowess. The reason for this was, of course, the fact that Shelley Potter had been sorted into that House and, much to Albus Dumbledore's displeasure, had turned out to be neither downtrodden nor unintelligent nor humble.

He had kept a close eye on her since his first (and only) meetings with the 'girl-who-lived' making sure that he reveiwed all of her work in all of her subjects to gauge just how much of a problem she was going to be to his plans. She was probably the finest student that had ever trod the halls and passageways of the ancient castle, including her own mother and the exceptional wizard that had been Tom Riddle. Albus had quickly decided that he would have to alter his plans considerably to accomodate ths disturbing fact.

Not that he had done so at first, relying on her being excited at the all new (to her) magical world and being too busy with her friends and such like any normal girl of eleven going on twelve. Shelley Potter, however, was anything but a normal girl. And, it appeared that she was not to be distracted from her self apppointed mission to rid his school of useless and incompetent teachers.

After finding poor Quirinus Quirrell's bullet ridden body in the 'mirror room' on his return from the Easter break, Albus had decided that he really needed to sort out the rest of, what Miss Potter saw as, his less acceptable staffing appointments before she took them in hand as well. As such, he had finally managed to persuade dear old Cuthbert Binns to make this his last term as a professor and move to the next great adventure and was currently interviewing for the position. Which was a boon in some respects as he would now be able to fill the post with one of his many loyal supporters.

Potions and Severus Snape was really his main concern. Because of his enforced loyalty via oath and probable future position as a spy when Tom returned, the man was simply too useful to let go of. He therefore, reluctantly accepted that he had to allow Minerva, as his Deputy Head, to monitor and regulate the dour professor's teaching methods, punishments and behaviour as she should have been doing in the first place. The old cat had given a predatory grin when he had given her the news and set right to work.

That had gone down like a lead baloon with the man himself, of course. A situation that had only been made worse when Hufflepuff swept the board at the end of year feast.

First through third year had seemed to have a complete reversal in usual results of the end of year exams with the little 'Puffs claiming the top five places in all subjects. Even the upper years had done substantially better than anticipated, having clearly adopted some of Miss Potters study habits even if they hadn't sat in on many of her 'lessons'. Black and yellow banners adorned the great Hall and Hufflepuff were crowned the undisputed rulers of Hogwarts, topping the test results table, winners of the House cup and, most gallingly of all for many, the quidditch cup as well.

Unfortunately he couldn't even say that they didn't deserve it.

Diggory was an absolute superstar seeker and as for their chasers, they were just ... well, ruthless and brutal were the two words that immediately sprang to his mind. Even against the trio of 'nice' young witches that made up the Gryfiindor chaser line, they hadn't let up for an instant. Being about on a par with his old House team in terms of skill in all areas except the seeker, the flying Badgers had used the tactics of disruption and intimidation efficiently and to full effect. It quickly became a humiliating rout for poor old Oliver Wood and his team.

The strange thing was that, no matter how disappointed or upset they were about the situation, there were nothing but congratulations offered by any of the members of any of the other three Houses about their acheivements. Not a single niggle or cross word made it's way to the victorious Badgers. It was unexpected and odd. Well, until one actually listened to the rumours (which Albus was fully prepared to believe) about what happened to those who went up against Hufflepuffs in general and their de-facto Queen, Miss Potter, and her little gang of hooligans in particular. Their retribution was known to be swift and terrible.

Shelley Potter herself, still confused him. She was nothing like he had expected her to be. She was brilliant, confident and in her general school life as in her quidditch play, she was cunning, ruthless and sometimes even a little cruel.

Oh, not in regard to anyone weaker or nicer or less intelligent than her, which seemed to be practically everyone. In fact, she was something of a philanthropist in that regard, much like her mother, protecting or tutoring all those who wanted or needed her help without hesitation, no matter their blood status, reputation or House. No, it was the ones who habitually preyed upon the smaller, weaker or nicer that she set her incredible mind to destroying.

Not that he had a problem with her dealing with the perrenial problem of bullying that had plagued his, and every other, school since time immemorial, it was just her methods that concerned him. Where he had always tried to guide and reform these misguided individuals with understanding and kindness and second chances, Miss Potter was more of a 'stick than carrot' kind of a girl, apparently. Her first and only response to bullies was always violence, swift and merciless and ... yes, even cruel.

Cruelty was a trait that he associated with Dark wizards in general and Tom Riddle in particular and this was a big problem for Albus. Especially since it appeared to become more pronounced in the weeks after she and her little gang of miscreants had completed his test and disposed of poor professor Quirrell and his ... _guest_ ... in such an un-necessarily violent manner. He was going to have to be very careful about how he dealt with her and how he allowed others to do so as well.

Thank Merlin she was going to be out of the country for a good few weeks of the summer. He badly needed a rest.

.

One person who wasn't about to rest in her labours was Shelley Potter.

The fact that she now had a piece of Voldemort's soul that had been somehow previously buried in her head and now awakened by the the other piece in her hat, would have left most normal people scared and broken. As her headmaster had recognised, however, Shelley was not 'normal' and she had quickly decided to take maximum advantage of it. Talented and experienced Dark wizards didn't get caught in your brain every day, she had reasoned, and to not utilise this positive gold mine of information was simply not practical.

So, once 'persuaded', the Toms had become her reluctant tutors in everything from recent, magical history to parsel magic and the Dark Arts and Shelley Potter's magical training took another giant leap forward. They also had an absolute ton of useful information about the people currently in power and who she could and couldn't trust or manipulate to her own advantage at a later date.

Aware that this wonderful probably wouldn't last forever, due to him being a (reasonably) intelligent Dark Lord and him probably working out how to get out of his mental prison eventually, she worked as hard as possible to learn everything that she could. Even her supreme iron will was broken, however, when the middle of July came.

The second week of the summer holidays, the Dursleys had swept up their children and jetted off across the ocean to a surprise vacation in the place of their youngest's dreams, Japan. They were somewhat aware that her dreams had been fuelled by those comics she read and cartoons she watched now and again and thought that she was probably in for a bit of a disappointment when confronted with the reality but they just couldn't deny her.

It wasn't as if money were an issue as Vernon's job at Grunnings, while being awfully dull, did pay rather well and a three week trip to the Far East for his perfect, little family was well within their means. A week in South Korea for Dudders who had become quite obsessed with both Taekwondo and the emerging K-Pop scene, going as far as to have his scary cousin help him learn the basics of the language, then a week in Japan for Shelley and finishing up with a fortnight in Thailand for everyone to relax on the beautiful beaches there.

The first portion of their break had certainly been interesting for Shelley as she had got to test out her skills as a language teacher as well as picking a little of it up herself. Also, Dudley was right to be obsessed with K-Pop as some of the female idols were absolutely gorgeous. They knew how to sing too, however, no matter how lovely and talented these young ladies were she wasn't here in the land of the rising sun for them. As beautiful and as interesting as South Korea was, Japan was calling her.

Making her way through through Tokyo airport, Shelley did a very cute (but very mad) little dance and let out a highly out of character squeal of delight. She was finally here, in the promised land of Shoujo ai and Yuri.

She had dropped enough hints, mind you so it wasn't a total surprise.

What it was, however, was totally wonderful.

The next day, Shelley stood outside one of the numerous, anonymous convention centres in the Seitetsu District of Tokyo staring up at the huge sign with shining eyes. There was no disappointment or disillusionment over the bland choice of venue for this young lady. Oh no. In fact, Shelley Potter could not be more excited than she was right now. She was bouncing lightly up and down on her feet for the entire forty minutes that it took for the small family to move through the queue to the ticket booths and main entrance.

National Comuket.

"Really princess, this is all you wanted to come to Japan for?"

The positively wounded look on Shelley's face at his insinuation that this was anything other than the most important thing that was happening in the entire world this week had Vernon back-tracking like a madman.

"I mean, obviously if _you_ think it's that important then it must be sweetie but wasn't there anything else that you wanted to do while we're here? ... after we've had our fill of this great ... er ... amine (?) convention, that is."

"I _suppose_ we could go for a trip to Mount Fuji ... and visit the ... Grand Shrine at Ise ... ooh, and see the Minamiza Theatre in Kyoto ... but _first_ before all of that ... it's yuri time! Yay!

"Y ... yay?"

"Yay!"

Shelley scowled at her family and repeated her battle cry more forcefully this time, puncuating it by thrusting her fist into the air. Knowing that their small relative could become extremely unpleasant if she didn't get her way, the Dursleys took her point and joined in with a great deal more enthusiasm that seemed to appease her for now.

"Yay!"

.

Shelley was stood in front of a table containing four rather pretty local girls in their mid-teens all dressed up in cosplay outfits, two as magical girls, one in a sexy sailor uniform and the last as a kind of huge rubber ball with eyes. The most interesting thing to her, however, was the colourful _Magical Girl, Mirakurun_ books that they were selling. Employing her well honed technique of being nice to people in order to get what she wanted from them, Shelley gave her most polite, disarming smile and bowed.

"Hajimemashite. Shelley Potter desu."

The pretty, green eyed, foreign girl in the colourful outfit and absolutely amazing hat introduced herself with perfect formality in only very slightly accented Japanese. It prompted a round of equally polite and formal greetings from the surprised young group.

"Dozo yoroshiku, Potter san. Funami Yui desu." _(Pleased to meet you, Miss Potter. My name is Yui Funami.)_

"Dozo yoroshiku, Potter san. Ikeda Chitose desu." _(Pleased to meet you, Miss Potter. My name is Chitose Ikeda.)_

"Dozo yoroshiku, Potter san. Sigiura Ayano desu." _(Pleased to meet you, Miss Potter. My name is Ayano Sigiura.)_

"Kyoko desu!"

The blonde girl's arm shot into the air and she grinned manically at Shelley.

"Oy!"

Yui, in the sailor suit, whacked the blonde magical girl on the back of the head and the purple haired magical girl shouted 'Toshino Kyoko!' with a look of outrage at her extreme lack of manners. Although there was something like a look of embarrassed attraction that crossed her face when the girl turned and pouted prettily at her. This action caused their last member, Chitose, to remove her glasses and bleed heavily from her nose.

My word, they were a lot of fun.

Shelley gave an honest to goodness giggle. She was very much enjoying the comedic interplay between the young women as it reminded her very much of another group of fun but slightly insane girls at home. The giggling turned to wonder, however, as she began to read the doujinshi that they were trying to sell. There was more subtext than actual yuri content but it was still a very exciting and very enjoyable read.

Of course, she would have been enjoying it much more if a certain couple of pieces of a dark Lord didn't insist on interrupting by chattering in her brain.

~Why are we doing this again Tom?~

~Search me Tom~

~You know, considering that you've lived her head for over ten years, you don't seem to have much insight into Potter's thought proceses.~

~Well what can I tell you Tom? The girl's just _that_ bloody weird.~

~Yeah, no shit Sherlock. What the bloody hell is a Comuket anyway?~

~Oh Toms, you're going to love it ... or not ... I dont really care. The point is that we're doing it anyway, so just shut up and let me read this will you.~

~What's it about then?~

Horcrux Tom was rather intrigued with whatever piece of literature had managed to keep his strange hostess from her usual frenetic mental gymnastics and wanted to know more. So much so that he was willing to tempt both fate and the young Potter's wrath.

~Well, from what I've been able to read so far ... ~ There was a hint of reprimand at being interrupted in her voice. ~ ... this is about a magical school girl, Mirakurun, who saves the world from an evil sorceress, but she doesn't really kill her outright and the evil witch, Rivalrun, keeps coming back and causing her trouble.~

Having explained the general synopsis, Shelley proceeded to provide a handkerchief to the girl with the nosebleed who had now shed her 'rubber ball' outfit to avoid getting it dirty. Chitose was pretty and polite and smelled rather nice so Shelley decided to sit on her lap so that she could read properly and in more comfort before making her decision on whether to buy the book. In her head, there was another very pregnant silence for a good few minutes while shade spirit Tom digested the details of this story before he couldn't hold in his unexpected interest in it any longer.

~Er ... Potter?~

~Hmmmm?~

~That story sounds rather ... _familiar_ ... if you don't mind me saying so.~

~If you're referring to our situation Tom, then yes, there are _some_ similarities but there also seem to be quite a few important differences. The biggest one being that this Dark witch actually managed to keep a tight hold of her body ... unlike you.~

The silence was much more sullen and lasted a lot longer this time.

Shelley took maximum advantage of this deveopment by leaning back against her comfy human cushion and continuing to read in peace.

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Artemis was aware that she was being extremely unsociable this lunch-time but she did have the excuse that her phone hadn't stopped buzzing for a good twenty minutes. There had been a great deal of grumbling among certain members of the pack about the amount of time their treasured princess spent glued to her iphone but the Amarok's clear approval of her being able to keep in touch with her funny (and influential) friends kept most of it at a manageable level.

The reason for all of this telephonic activity was the obviously over-excited Shelley Potter and her insistence on sending pictures of her vacation every few minutes that she was awake. Then there were the discussions on the pictures that Hannah and Luna liked to have after Shelley was asleep and the continuous stream of images had stopped for the day. It was very time consuming and positively exhausting. Even to Artemis who, like her friends, was a.) in possession off an iphone and b.) actually shared her friend's interest in the serious art forms of manga and doujinshi. Well, the Yuri variety anyway.

She did manage to get in some other activities though. Like chasing her young cousins, who were all delighted to have her home, through the forest and the occaisional bit of target practice which were garnering quite the audience now.

While all of her family and the Royal Pack (especially her mum, Alice) had been most interested and impressed with the results of her rune enhaced bullets, Artemis was still not convinced that they were enough. She still loved her Glocks, since they were a present from her original pack, an expression of love and a symbol of their desire to protect her but she knew that she needed to go up in both caliber and stopping power.

Admittedly they were excellent against human targets, she was still rather in awe of the damage that professor Quirrell/Voldemort had sustained when she had let fly with them but what about the future? Having spent the last ten months learning as much as she could about the magical world as well as what it meant to be a witch, she now knew of other creatures. Giants, dragons, griffons, chimerae to name but a few and all of them were far larger and far tougher than 'puny humans' as one of her favourite comic-book heros called them. She was also aware that being friends with the strange and brilliant Shelley Potter she was almost guaranteed to come up against them sooner or later.

It was this thinking that led Artemis to send her insanely smart best friend a text that inadvertantly interrupted her reading at a certain doujinshi convention.

.

 _Hey ShellBell,_

 _So, I've been thinking that we need to up the ante with my guns and add to our armory with something a bit ... er ... bigger. It'd be cool to have more room on the bigger bullets for more runes and even put different tips for different threats. Just think of the fun we could have experimenting with that._

 _Check out the Hellboy comics to see what I'm thinking of ..._

There was some furious tapping as she deleted this last part, shuddering slightly at what kind of nuclear reaction in a handgun that Shelley would produce if pointed in that particular direction and left to her own devices. Instead Artemis found a picture of an old 'Dirty Harry' style, Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum and inserted that into her message instead. It seemed safer.

 _I'm thinking of something like this but with a larger caliber. Why don't we brainstorm when we get together on the train._

 _Arte. Xoxoxo._

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In less than a minute her phone buzzed and the reply to her text caused her to wince slightly.

.

 _OMFG. We are so doing that._

 _S._

 _;)_

.

Oh dear. Artemis had the sudden, irrational feeling that she had just made a very big mistake.

.

The quiet girl, Chitose, now relieved of her rubber ball costume, was staring at two her arguing friends and seemed to be caught up in some sort of erotic daydream involving them that had resulted in her bleeding rather heavily from her nose. Shelley, being a helpful sort of a girl and not wanting to see her pass out from blood loss, possibly getting all these wonderful doujinshi dirty, moved to offer her assistance. A type of assistance that was obviuous to her but quite shocking to everyone who happened to be watching this little drama unfold.

She was also in an excellent mood after being gifted the promise of a firearms based project that would involve extensive experimentation. So Shelley decided to excercise all of that research she had done into 'human relations' last term, turned in Chitose's lap and kissed her. And despite her lack of experience in the art she found herself to be rather good at it. This was certainly the case if the cute little noises that her impromptu partner was now making while moving her lips against Shelleys were anything to go by, anyway.

~What's she doing now, for Merlin's sake?~

~She can hear us you know Tom so why don't you just ask her that?~

~I know, it's just that I'm ... er ... well ...~

~You're scared of her, you big poof.~

~Well _duh_ , of course I'm scared of her, she's bloody mental ... also I don't think that it's very wise to be using derogatory terms for homosexuals since, considering what she's getting up to at the moment, it appears that she is one and all.~

~Wise? I'll have you now that I am the absolute epitome of wisdom, why when I was conducting my great pureblood revolution I ... ~

~Ran scared of a senile old coot with arthritis and a Gandalf complex? Got yourself beaten by an infant? Got caught and imprisoned in a hat ornament by a bunch of pre-teen school girls?~

~You _dare_ to question my greatness you useless, little ... ~

~Will you two pack it in, I'm trying to conduct an ... er ... important experiment here and you're ruining the moment.~

~Oh, an _experiment._ Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays.~

The phenomenally powerful psychic _crucio_ that followed the imprisoned shade spirit's sniggering and extremely unwise attempt at humour resulted in untold, excruciating pain for both pieces of Tom Riddle currently residing in Shelley's head. It was a recently learned skill for her and, as with all other magic that she attempted, it came to the 'girl-who-lived' with ridiculous ease. Also, as usual, she was rather good at it.

~I ... t ... told you we sh ... shouldn't have t ... taught her t ... that Tom.~

~L ... like we had a bl ... bloody ch ... choice in the m ... matter.~

All of this mental activity would have just made Shelley look even more deranged to her new Japanese acquaintances if she hadn't still been locked in her intimate embrace with their friend and was hidden from their view.

It was only later, when the crazy foreigner had left, after giving Kyoko her contact information and a downpayment on a commision for a special manga about her friends and her, that they realised that Chitose still wasn't speaking. The overly polite, sweet, white haired girl was in a state of stunned shock with a glazed look on her face. She was also sighing and drooling quite a lot. Still, at least her nosebleeds seemed to have stopped.

.

The Grange was a reasonably sized manor house in one of the more rural parts of Somerset and the ancestral seat of the Abbott family. They were an old pureblood, old money, minor noble family with aspirations to continue their advance up the slippery pole of ambition in the status obsessed Magical society. It was because of these aspirations and ambitions that Sir Greville and Lady Euphemia Abbott had been pleased with their only daughter's connection to the 'girl-who-lived'. It was the same reason that they were not quite so pleased with her association with the rumoured werewolf, Artemis Amarok.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the Potter girl and the wolf were a package deal, being fellow chasers and best friends, so if they wanted the social boost of their heiress being friends with Shelley, they had to take her 'pet' as well. Although this did affect their standing with the more traditional and Dark families, it actually made them more acceptable in the eyes of the Light side and brought them firmly into postition as one of the leading Houses in the Neutral faction.

This made them treat their daughter with a great deal more affection than had previously been the case, leaving Hannah, who had been practcally raised by their put upon house elf, Mindy, more than a little bemused. She had never had so many dinners with her parents and, used to being left alone to find her own entertainment, was rather sufocating under the new 'caring' regime.

When Hannah Abbott finally managed to get herself free of the cloying attentions of her well meaning but now suddenly, over clingy parents she all but sprinted to her bedroom, taking the stairs two at a time. The reason for her hurry was that the time for her pre-arranged daily call with Arte' was fast approaching and she needed to retrieve her phone from its super secret hiding place under her bed.

After the now usual few minutes of 'I miss you so much' and without the intellectual influence (if sometimes tangentially so) of Shelley or the insane influence of Luna, the conversation between the two quickly slipped into the pattern of school girls everywhere. They spent a good hour and a half discussing the minutiae of the everyday lives of themselves, their friends and families before switching to the exasperating but interesting subject of the pictures of her trip to the Far East that Shelley had been bombarding them with for the last couple of weeks. Not that either of them minded. Their friend and fellow Hooligan had an odd style of photographic composition but it did make for some highly entertaining shots.

Also, Shelley's large cousin Dudley had rather bravely sent Artemis a video of her performing karaoke with four Japanese girls that she had met in Tokyo. That she was taking it _very_ seriously just made it all the funnier and the white wolf had immediately shared it with everyone in her address book. Unfortunately, she had quite forgotten that Shelley herself was in that address book and had to suffer through an excruciating call from a quietly irate, almost psychotic, green eyed lunatic.

None of those who knew her and her knack for exating terrible vengeance, envied the poor boy who had started all of this but none of them could quite bring themselves to delete the entertaining clip despite the danger of not doing so. It was just too good to pass up having such a great piece of blackmail material.

.

The Lovegood home was considerably less grand than those of either of her two pale haired friends. In scale it was much more like the Dursley's comfortable Surrey semi-detached although that was where the similarities ended. The Rook, as the house was called, was considerably skinnier and more vertical and didn't seem to have a straight line in the place. It would have driven Vernon and Petunia mad.

It was also filled with Luna's 'art'. Blurry photographs of extinct, mythical and sometimes, imaginary creatures covered the mis-matched furniture and walls, along with colouful paintings and posters made from seashells.

Her father adored it's quirkiness, but then he was rather quirky himself. He was just thinking that he ought to start supper soon, dirigible plums and turnip mash (yum) when he heard a now familiar buzzing noise.

"Is that another message from your beloved, dearest Moon Pie?"

"Really Daddy, she's not even my girlfriend let alone my beloved."

"Well, not _yet_ anyway, little Moon."

"No, not yet."

Xeno tried extremely hard not to laugh at the dreamy smile that graced his only daughter's face when she sighed out that answer and _nearly_ succeeded. The poor dear was just so obvious. Just like her mother had always been. When she settled on his lap and showed him all the pictures of her beloved's exciting holiday on that marvellous, muggle communication device of hers his restraint broke totally.

"My goodness but she does seem to be having fun." He chuckled delightedly at the exhuberant young woman who had captured his Luna's heart so utterly. "No nargles on that girl, dear."

"Not a one, Daddy."

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It was the end of August and Diagon Alley was full of excited eleven year olds and their long suffering guardians doing their first Hogwarts shop. The older children there were doing their best to be all cool and aloof but none of them were really making a great success of it. A portly, middle aged woman and her much younger companion took it all in from behind the safety of the little visited potions and apocathary section of the bookshop and smiled at the scene.

Once upon a time NymphadoraTonks had thought of joining the aurors, but after her final year at Hogwarts her plans had changed drastically.

Now it was a career in healing that appealed to her (much to her mother's delight and relief). Or more specifically an apprentiship with Madame Pomfrey that would keep her in Hogwarts school and close to a certain Astronomy professor with whom she had begun a tempestuous affair. Her mother would probably be slightly less delighted had she known that little tidbit, although her dad would definitely clap her on the back and congtratulate her before laughing his arse off.

Had he been there, Ted Tonks would have also been laughing his arse off at the scene that occured in Flourish and Blotts that afternoon as the extremely unwise future Hogwarts DADA professor attempted to capitalise on his most famous student's presence in the bookshop.

Shelley Potter, while shopping for her school books, had been distracted by a fracas occurring at the back of the shop but her reaction upon being grabbed by a large man she didn't know was instantaeous and spectacularly violent. It was a photo opportunity, to be sure, just not the kind of one that Lockhart had been going for. Grovelling on the floor with his hand a crumpled, broken mess in her vise-like grip and the wrong end of the 'girl-who-lived's extraordinary wand hovering less than an inch from his right eye made for a fantastic front page picture.

It wasn't really the type of publicity he had been hoping for although in a later interview with _The Daily Prophet_ he claimed that they had set it up to demonstrate his revolutionary, new teaching techniques. Luckily for him, Shelley hadn't bothered reading the newspaper since last summer, having very quickly decided that it was pretty much all gossip and fabrication and so didn't notice that he had done so. Her response would probably not have been either very reasonable or very polite if she had.

Watching this episode from the stacks, that was the only part of returning to Hogwarts that slightly worried Tonks, if she were being honest. She could and would cope with all of the cat-calls and ribbing that she would almost certainly receive for her sudden career u-turn and her relationship with the lovely professor Sinistra with her usual nonchalance. No, it was the thought of inadvertantly crossing the scary leader of the Hufflepuff Hooligans that gave her pause. In the year that she had known her it hadn't escaped Tonks' notice just how powerful she had become.

And, if that little scene with Lockhart was any indication, how much less tolerant of being accosted by glory seeking morons she was. Not that Shelley had ever been particularly tolerant of that before, but she seemed to be much quicker to resort to violence as a first response. She was sincerely hoping that it was hormones that were making her so ... tetchy. Unfortunately, she had seen that mischievous joy in the girl's glittering, emerald eyes as she inflicted pain on the ridiculous fop and knew that it was something far more dangerous.

Thank Merlin she would be safe (ish) behind the sweet and substantially stacked buffer of her girlfriend. She pitied the fool that didn't have that kind of protection and still managed to piss her off, although it might be quite fun to watch from a distance as the undisputed Queen of the Badgers, and so the school, went to work on them.

Okay, now she was looking forward to returning to the castle again.

.

Platform Nine and three quarters was as crowded as ever but a sudden space seemed to appear (as if by magic) when a small family came trotting through the muggle entrance preceded by a twelve year old girl in a crooked, black and yellow top hat. For the three other girls who had arrived earlier and been waiting, a touch impatiently it had to be said, this was the starting gun for chaos.

"Belly Boo, you're here!" A blonde missile threw herself into Shelley's arms almost bowling her over. "I've missed you _so_ much."

"Well of course you missed me. How could you not? Life's always more interesting when I'm around."

Artemis took in the dull, flat but utterly serious tone of her friend and grinned widely as she saw the ghost of a smile pass across her usually expressionless face. If she wasn't very much mistaken (and she wasn't) then the scarilly intense girl had just cracked a sort of joke. Shelley's holiday had clearly done her the world of good. And to be honest, hers had as well. Just spending time with the pack she grew up with, in the forest she grew up in, had been amazing ... but, it was good to be back. She missed her family like crazy when she was away from them but, by the Great Wolf, it was good to back. Here with all of her strange, sweet, mental friends. Here with _her_ pack.

She, for once, took on the role of 'mother' and herded them all onto the Express, directing Shelley's two large relatives to 'pick a couple of trunks each and follow us' and was rewarded by a hand entwining itself in hers and a small, possessive kiss on the neck.

Yeah, it was most defintely good to be back. Back with her mate. Back with her pack.

A few yards down the platform a small girl with bright ginger hair watched the group with envious eyes until her older brothers swooped in, as if from nowhere, and carried both her and her meagre amount of luggage up and onto the train. Deposited in an empty carriage and abandoned by the twins in favour of meeting their friends, Ginny Weasley pulled a care-worn, leather bound diary from her pocket and smiled. Retrieving a small, cheap, self-inking quill she opened up a blank page and wrote.

 **Hello Tom, I'm on the Hogwarts Express now.**

Most people would have been both surprised and suspicious if a diary wrote back but for the lonely girl in the second-hand robes this was not her first rodeo with the highly magical artifact. The reply just made her smile even more bright ... and significantly more creepy.

 **That's exellent Ginny. Are you ready for your great adventure?**

And an adventure is just what Ginny Weasley was going to get. Although possibly not quite how she had imagined.

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 **Reviews are our cookies and you wouldn't want us starve now would you. Seriously though the feedback would be very helpful on this one guys so do let us know how we're doing with it, and I promise that I will try and answer all of your questions. Of which I am sure there will be many.**

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 **DtR xx.**


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